Although Peter Navarro, former advisor to President Trump, left the White House over three years ago, his actions continue to attract legal scrutiny. His issues began when the Justice Department sued him to hand over government emails concealed in his Protonmail account. This court case has broader implications for the former president who insists that the only remedy for non-return of government documents is repeated requests from the National Archives.
Despite District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granting summary judgement requiring Navarro to return these emails, he has maintained his resistance.
Navarro initially appealed the judgement within the DC Circuit, only to be met with court admonishments. Furthermore, the government persists in its claim that he remains non-compliant with the order.
In August, a court order required Navarro to submit a “random sample of fifty emails across each account searched that were not identified as responsive in his last review” for in camera inspection. The published results of that inspection reveal at least 24% of the materials qualify as Presidential records per the Presidential Records Act (PRA). In total, the error rate ranges from 24% to 56%.
The court has expressed frustration at Navarro’s non-compliance. “Given Plaintiff’s difficulty in obtaining its Presidential records, additional supervision of Defendant’s compliance with this Court’s judgment is warranted,” wrote Judge Kollar-Kotelly, granting the government’s motion to enforce the year-old judgement. Navarro now faces a deadline of March 21 to achieve full compliance, and the court is concurrently assessing whether he should be held in contempt.
The only uncertainty now is which would come first: Navarro’s custodial sentence in the criminal case, or his full compliance with the replevin order.
Further details of the case can be found in US v. Navarro.