Prosecutor: Former Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Rejects Plea Deal

Peter Navarro, a former adviser to President Donald Trump, declined a government offer to plead guilty to a contempt-of=Congress charge, the lead federal prosecutor in the case told a judg Friday.

Last month, Navarro pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress, after he refused to provide testimony or documents to the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.

At a status hearing Friday, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi told U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta about the plea offer that Navarro rejected.

Aloi said the department offered to let him plead guilty to a single count. The deal also would have required him to "comply with the January 6 committee subpoena to the satisfaction of the Justice Department."

Navarro's attorneys on Friday again reiterated their concerns regarding the circumstances surrounding his arrest last month, in which he was taken into custody and handcuffed at Reagan National Airport, even though he had been in touch with the FBI previously and lives across the street from the FBI's office in Washington, D.C.

"It is curious to me, at a minimum, why the government treated Mr. Navarro's arrest the way it did," Mehta said, noting Navarro is not charged with a violent crime.

"It's surprising that self-surrender was not offered as an opportunity."