Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced Thursday to four months behind bars.

He was the second Trump aide to be convicted of contempt of Congress charges. Former White House adviser

Steve Stephen K.

Bannon previously received a four-month prison sentence, but is free pending appeal.

Navarro was found guilty of ignoring a subpoena for documents and testimony from the House of Representatives committee on January 6. He served as White House trade adviser

O

r under the then president

Donald

Trump and later promoted Republicans’ baseless claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta told Navarro it took guts to claim he accepted responsibility for his actions while at the same time suggesting his prosecution was politically motivated.

You are not a victim. You are not the object of political persecution, the judge said. These are circumstances of your own making.”

Navarro’s lawyers have said he will appeal his conviction and sentence.

Navarro has said he could not work with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. However, the judge banned him from using this argument during the trial, because he felt that he had not shown that Trump had actually relied on it.

Navarro said in court Thursday before his sentencing that the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack led him to believe it accepted his appeal of executive privilege.

No one in my position should come into conflict between the legislature and the executive, he told the judge.

Mehta said that exercising privilege is not a magic substance to avoid a duty.”

It is not a get-out-of-jail-free card, the judge added.

A federal prosecutor, John Crabb Jr., told the judge that the Justice Department enforces the law without fear, favor or political influence.

This is a fair prosecution, Crabb said.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. More than 100 police officers were injured during clashes with the crowd of Trump supporters who disrupted the joint session of Congress to certify Biden’s victory over Trump.

The House of Representatives committee spent eighteen months investigating and interviewing the insurrection

well more than

1,000 witnesses, holding 10 hearings and obtaining more than 1 million pages of documents. In its final report, the panel ultimately concluded that Trump criminally engaged in a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the election results and failed to act to stop his supporters from storming the Capitol.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied doing anything wrong.

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge

on

Thursday, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express his disappointment with him. In response to a question about why he had not initially sought a lawyer, he told the judge: I didn’t know what to do, sir.

The judge said Navarro should have known how to respond to a House committee subpoena because he received one just weeks after Bannon was charged with criminal contempt of Congress.

I know you think it’s a political fight, Mehta told Navarro.

“(

The House Committee

)”

I had a job to do and you made it harder. “It really is that simple.”

The judge allows Navarro’s defense to submit a written brief on whether he should remain free pending the appeal.

Justice Department prosecutors said Navarro tried to hide behind claims of privilege even before he knew what the commission wanted, showing a contempt for the commission that should justify a longer sentence. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine.

Defense attorneys said Trump was indeed claiming executive privilege, putting Navarro in an inferior position, and that they had asked for probation and a $100 fine.

The judge ordered Navarro to pay a $9,500 fine.

Attorney Stanley Woodward said Navarro believed he was obligated to assert executive privilege.

He doesn’t need to be punished to prove anything, Woodward told the judge.

Bannon, who also made arguments regarding executive privilege, was convicted of two counts.

Navarro’s conviction comes after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial. His lawyers had argued that jurors may have been improperly influenced by political protesters outside the courthouse as they took a break from deliberations. Shortly after their break, jurors found Navarro guilty of two felony counts of contempt of Congress.

But the judge ruled that Navarro did not show that the eight-minute pause had any effect on the September sentence. He discovered that there was no protest going on and no one approached the jurors. They only had contact with each other and the court officer assigned to accompany them.