Navarro scolds anti-Trump protester after court hearing: 'Shame on you, ma’am'
Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro argued with an anti-Trump protester on the steps of the federal courthouse in Washington on Wednesday after a judge ruled he can not claim executive privilege as a defense in his contempt of Congress trial.
Navarro attempted to swat away a sign reading “Trump lost” from a protester standing behind while speaking to reporters after the court hearing.
After taking questions for about seven minutes, he turned and engaged with the woman who had been heckling him throughout the exchange with reporters. A Navarro supporter had also stepped behind him and started waving a small American flag in front of the anti-Trump sign.
“This is the problem we have in America. Like, she’s got, ‘Trump Lost,’ and, you know, that’s fine. She’s expressing her point of view,” Navarro said.
“She’s got a megaphone to disrupt. But when it comes time for me to express my view with you, you’ve seen what she’s done. She’s interrupted me while I was speaking. And she won’t even let an American show the American flag."
“Shame on you, ma’am,” he continued.
Navarro was in court Wednesday arguing that former President Trump had invoked executive privilege that barred him from cooperating with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee from last year.
He was hoping to use the argument as a defense in his trial, set to start next week, but Judge Amit Mehta called his case “pretty weak sauce” in a pretrial hearing earlier this week and ruled against it Wednesday.
There was no “affirmative evidence” that former President Trump attempted to exert executive privilege, the judge said.
“There was no formal invocation of executive privilege by [Trump] after personal consideration nor authorization to Mr. Navarro to invoke privilege on his behalf,” Mehta said.
Navarro cannot be forced to testify as the committee ceased its work last year, but he can still be held in contempt of Congress, which carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
The Hill's Ella Lee contributed to this report.