Former San Diegan and Trumpist Peter Navarro Gets 4 Months in Prison for Contempt of Congress

Originally posted Jan. 26, 2024

Former San Diegan politician Peter Navarro who became a Trump advisor, was sentenced on Thursday, Jan. 25, to four months in prison for contempt of Congress after refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Navarro, 74, was well known in San Diego back in the day because as a slow-growth advocate he founded a group called PLAN for “Prevent Los Angeles Now” when he was a Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for local and state offices five times. He ended up teaching at UC Irvine for years … until he underwent a severe change into his dark side.

From Times of San Diego:

Federal prosecutors in Washington had asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to give Navarro a six-month sentence, arguing that he chose allegiance to Trump over the rule of law. “The defendant brazenly defied Congress,” prosecutor John Crabb said.

Navarro was found guilty in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to turn over documents and provide testimony to a Democratic-led House of Representatives panel. “They led me to believe that privilege had been invoked and they accepted it,” Navarro said on Thursday of the House committee.

Navarro has asked that any sentence be put on hold while he pursues an appeal. The judge did not immediately decide that issue. The judge reprimanded Navarro for his past statements that Biden and other prominent Democrats are behind the prosecution. “Joe Biden is not responsible for your prosecution,” the judge told Navarro. “It’s those kinds of statements from somebody who knows better that contributes to why our politics are so corrosive.”

Mehta previously determined that Trump had not clearly directed Navarro to assert privilege. Navarro was barred from making that argument to the jury during his trial.

Navarro advised Trump on trade issues during his presidency and served on a COVID-19 task force. He became a vocal supporter of Trump’s false claims of widespread voting fraud in the 2020 election. Trump supporters sought to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory, clashing with police and rampaging through the Capitol.

The House committee had sought to interview Navarro about his plan, dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep,” to derail the certification of the election results.

Here’s what the Rag reported back in 2018 when Navarro made the news:

Peter Navarro was well known in San Diego and Ocean Beach back in the 1990s as a type of environmentalist activist and populist politician. He said he used to surf OB. He was an in-your-face, slow-growth advocate – and a Democrat. He led a group called PLAN, Prevent Los Angelisation Now. He ran for local office 5 times – and I’m certain I voted for him at least once – but lost each time, although a couple were close.

After being a lecturer at USD and UCSD in the 1980s, his first electoral campaign was in 1992. He ran in a crowded mayoral primary and received the most votes (38%), but in the general election, he lost to Republican Susan Golding, 52% to 48%.

A year later in 1993, Navarro ran for city council in District 1 – and lost by a hair (277 votes) to Harry Mathis. Then in 1994, he was narrowly defeated again (3,265 votes) this time by Ron Roberts in a race for the 4th District of the county Board of Supervisors.

In 1996, Navarro tried an upset of Congressman Brian Bilbray California’s 49th District and big name Democrats campaigned for him (Hillary Clinton and then US Congressman – later Mayor Bob Filner) – but to no avail. He lost again. His last San Diego campaign was for the city council again – this time for District 6. He didn’t make it. San Diego Union-Tribune

Finally, Navarro gave up on San Diego, moved to Orange County and UC Irvine, where he became a professor and author of a dozen economic books.

UC Irvine is where Navarro changed. He went from a Democrat populist to a hard-line critic of China and an strong advocate of right-wing politics and economics. Today he sits as the Assistant to the President, Director of Trade and Industrial Policy, and the Director of the White House National Trade Council, – fancy titles for a sycophant – where he he fuels Trump’s anti-China tirades. And yes, he campaigned viciously for Trump.

So, Navarro has joined a select club of former San Diego politicians, who once all had a populist type of politics, but changed into having racist and/ or right-wing views; we’re talking Pete Wilson, former mayor and governor and we’re talking Roger “Light ’em up” Hedgecock, also former mayor, and now racist radio talkshow host.  Congrats, Peter.

Yet, generally, Navarro’s views are considered significantly outside the mainstream of economic thought; a strong proponent of reducing U.S. trade deficits; a critic of Germany and China for so-called currency manipulation; he wants high tariffs for the US, and is against both NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Navarro’s fall from grace has been breathless. Especially when one views his early rise here locally as he faced off with San Diego’s developer-ridden establishment. Those were the days when Democrats were a small minority on the city council and Republicans totally dominated County government. I’m sure Navarro will someday write a book about his prison stay and try to parlay it into a future role with the fascist MAGA movement.