Government

Peter Navarro: Pro Se Lawyer Extraordinaire!

Shit. Show.

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Former Trump Advisor Peter Navarro Indicted For Contempt Of Congress

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s erstwhile econ crank Peter Navarro is really getting the hang of this whole lawyering thing. This time he actually managed to send a copy of his motion-shaped object to prosecutors in his contempt of Congress case, instead of just filing it ex parte.

And by “filing it,” we mean he emailed it to the courtroom deputy, who presumably rolled his eyes very hard before docketing several rambling emails demanding that US District Judge Amit Mehta order the government to stop filing motions because Navarro hasn’t worked out whether he wants to hire a lawyer yet. Or … something? Navarro’s goals shift based on his grievance du jour, and seem unrelated to the criminal charges he’s facing or the rules of procedure.

After his initial appearance, Navarro spent a week complaining on conservative media that he’d been denied food and water, put in leg irons, and deprived of his right to counsel when the FBI arrested him on June 3.

He declared before US Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui that day that he would likely represent himself pro se because “I don’t want to spend my retirement savings on lawyers,” before immediately turning around and accusing prosecutors of “tak[ing] advantage of an individual without adequate representation.”

In a June 8 email to Judge Mehta’s deputy, Navarro demanded “that the court investigate this particularly egregious breach of due process, confirm my allegations, provide me with the FBI’s rationale for taking such an egregious step, and take actions in this matter as appropriate.” He’d also like the court to postpone his arraignment until after he gets finished suing Nancy Pelosi for the tort of conspiring with the Justice Department to murder him with the fruit of the poison tree … more or less.

Prosecutors asked for a blanket gag order and then filed a furious motion claiming that Navarro was indeed given food and water and had demanded his phone, not to contact a lawyer, but to call a television producer to cancel a TV hit.

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Navarro then fired off another email to the courtroom deputy instructing the court not to rule on the gag order until he’d manage to cook up a response “be [sic] cob tomorrow.”

At which point Judge Mehta put out a minute order instructing Navarro to cut out the ex parte comms and start filing documents in the normal way:

If Defendant wishes to communicate with the court, he shall do so through a written filing submitted through the clerk’s office. Alternatively, he can seek permission to obtain filing privileges for the court’s online filing system. Securing such privileges will require Defendant to follow Local Criminal Rule 49(b)(2). The District Court’s Local Rules are available on its website. The court assumes that Defendant was unaware of the prohibition on ex parte communications and trusts that they will cease going forward.

Navarro managed to comply, at least in part. Although he continues to “file” by emailing the courtroom deputy, he did manage to CC prosecutors on this “Motion for Documents Pertaining to Arrest.”

And what a motion it was!

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Navarro made no mention of the proposed protective order, and only glancingly referenced his request to postpone the arraignment. Instead he demanded immediate discovery on the circumstances of his arrest, doubling down on the claim that he requested counsel, even going so far as to say that prosecutors knew the name of his lawyer before they arrested him.

Which is slightly undercut by Navarro’s own courtroom declaration of the “high probability that I’ll do this pro se,” as well as his own signature on this very document, which reads “Peter Navarro, Pro se actively seeking counsel.”

It’s hard to pick the best part of this “motion,” which is gloriously batshit, but here’s a fun sample.

The defendant does not recall the agents reading his Miranda rights from any written text but rather delivering the notice in a casual and improvisational manner, perhaps designed to lull the defendant into complaceny [sic]. It would be useful to have clarity on this matter to determine whether the defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

The defendant appears to be under the impression that the arrest is a nullity because “the agents should have read from a written card” when they Mirandized him.

In any event, Navarro does not appear to have been interrogated, and indeed was provided with a public defender who “was a fine person” but “had little command of the facts,” which “put the defendant at a far greater disadvantage during the hearing than if he had been able to speak to legal counsel, and it is an open question as to whether that was the prosecution’s intent.”

Judge Mehta was appropriately impressed with this document.

“The court cannot discern whether Defendant intends this to be an actual motion or a Rule 16(a)(1) discovery demand directed to the government,” he wrote in a minute order. “Out of an abundance of caution, the court treats the filing as a motion and will docket it accordingly.”

Which really does not sound like he’s about to postpone Navarro’s arraignment, which is set for Friday morning at 10am.

Meanwhile, Navarro is crowdfunding his legal defense by flogging his upcoming book.

Unlike Navarro’s last book about the greatness of Donald Trump which you can buy today, the newest offering won’t be available until September 20 — which is presumably too late if he’s relying on the proceeds to hire a lawyer to represent him on Friday.

Can’t hardly wait.

[Ed. note: The government has responded and noted that it’ll hand over what it has once it gets the gag order.]

US v. Navarro [Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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