About
Peter Navarro is an economist who served in several advisory roles in the Trump administration. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election, Navarro worked to develop legal and political strategies to overturn the results and keep Donald Trump in power. On June 2, 2022, Navarro was indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to testify or hand over documents before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.
On November 18, 2020, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel finalized a report concluding that Navarro repeatedly violated the Hatch Act by engaging in political activity in his official capacity.
“I still have some principles, but not as many as you might think,” Navarro wrote in a 1998 autobiography, “because I don’t have any concern at all about making stuff up about my opponent that isn’t exactly true.”
January 6, 2021
- Two days after the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Navarro claimed in a Fox Business interview that Trump was not responsible for the attacks.
- On Feb. 9, 2022, the House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack issued a subpoena compelling Navarro to turn over documents and appear for a deposition relating to his publicly-stated efforts to overturn the election. Navarro stated he would not comply with the subpoena, citing Trump’s invocation of executive privilege.
- Navarro was indicted and arrested in June 2022 for his refusal to comply with the committee. He pled not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin in mid-November.
The Big Lie
- In December 2020, Navarro published a report on Bannon’s War Room repeating debunked claims that election “irregularities” in six states proved that the election had been fraudulently stolen from Trump. According to The Guardian, Navarro and his aides began working on the report two weeks before election day.
- Navarro followed the initial report with two more volumes. Altogether, the three-part “Navarro Report” is an 86-page document his staff created compiling and elaborating on many of the incorrect, misleading, and debunked narratives alleging widespread voter fraud and ballot mishandling in the 2020 presidential election.
- Navarro was on a Jan. 2, 2021 call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Trump urged Raffensperger to find enough votes to overturn the state’s election outcome. After that call, Navarro stayed on for the Trump team’s call with legislators from Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to discuss overturning the certified Biden victories in those states.
- In a Fox News interview with Jeanine Pirro on Jan. 2, Navarro repeated false claims that the election had been stolen. He argued incorrectly that Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to delay the certification of the election and Biden’s inauguration by demanding an investigation into the results.
- According to Rolling Stone, Navarro and Steve Bannon put together an unsuccessful plan called the Green Bay Sweep in which they coordinated with politicians including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to attempt to halt the Congressional certification of the 2020 election results.
- On July 11, 2022, Navarro claimed that former Vice President Mike Pence was guilty of treason for not telling Trump about Navarro’s claim that Pence did have the authority to prevent the certification of Biden as the winner of the election.