Trump ally Peter Navarro subpoenaed by January 6 grand jury after refusing to cooperate with select committee

Former trade adviser has spoken openly on TV about plans to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Congress on 6 January 2021

Former Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro has been subpoenaed to give evidence to a federal grand jury that is investigating the events leading up to the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

As reported by Politico, the details of the subpoena were made public via a draft version of a lawsuit that Mr Navarro himself has been circulating.

In the filing – which names as defendants Nancy Pelosi, every member of the 6 January select committee, the panel itself and the House of Representatives as well as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia – he describes how on 26 May this year, “two FBI special agents banged loudly on my door in the early morning hours to present me with a fruit of the poisonous tree Grand Jury Subpoena”.

Mr Navarro claims that the subpoena “pointedly ignored all claims of executive privilege and testimonial immunity while commanding me to testify… and present ‘[a]ll documents relating to the subpoena dated February 9, 2022” that I “received from the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, including but not limited to any communications with former President Trump and/or his counsel or representative’.”

The grand jury is part of the Justice Department’s mostly out-of-view investigation into the riot, which has been widely criticised for moving relatively slowly to act on legal referrals from the House and other law enforcement agencies. However, in recent weeks, the jury has subpoenaed various senior figures in the post-election subversion effort, indicating its probe may be kicking up a gear.

Mr Navarro was earlier this year held in contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a similar subpoena from the congressional select committee investigating the insurrection, which interrupted but failed to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

Along with producing numerous documents falsely claiming the election was stolen, Mr Navarro also formulated a strategy known as the “Green Bay Sweep” with ex-Trump aide and far-right extremist Steve Bannon with the aim of keeping Mr Trump in office. In several TV appearances since the riot, Mr Navarro has described plans to have Mike Pence essentially throw the result out citing non-existent voter fraud.

Mr Pence refused to follow any such plan, agreeing with the vast majority of constitutional law experts that there was no legal basis to think the vice president could unilaterally throw out an election result.

He has since become something of a hate figure for certain die-hard Trump supporters who blame him for Mr Biden becoming president, and has campaigned for top Republican officials whom Mr Trump has targeted for refusing to join the “stop the steal” campaign.