Peter Navarro accuses feds of ‘false and misleading’ claims, calls for release of arrest recordings

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is calling for the release of audio and video recordings and documents pertaining to his arrest after being indicted on criminal contempt charges last week.

Navarro claims federal prosecutors lied about his arrest last week, saying their account of the incident was “false and misleading.”

In a court motion Friday requesting documents, Navarro stood by his claims that he was deprived of adequate legal counsel and rebuffed assertions from federal prosecutors Thursday that he was offered counsel.

“It is the prosecution’s claim that is both false and misleading,” Navarro said in the court filing. “As soon as the defendant asked to call for legal advice, the agents should have read from a written card the defendant his Miranda rights and done everything within their power to allow him a phone call to seek legal advice as he requested well prior to his court appearance.”

“They did not do so and thereby deprived the defendant of appropriate legal counsel,” he claimed in the motion, which was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. Navarro told reporters after his arrest that he chose to represent himself due to the prohibitive costs of retaining defense counsel for the case.

Navarro wrote in a letter to D.C. District Court Judge Amit Mehta that he was “at a severe disadvantage” without legal counsel and requested a 45-day extension to his arraignment.

Prosecutors denied Navarro’s accusations. “The Defendant bases his request for a continuance, in part, on his accusations that the Government is attempting to deprive him of counsel—for example, by allegedly denying him a call to counsel upon his arrest and filing motions in the normal course of proceeding with this case,” the prosecutors wrote. “The Defendant’s claims are false.”

On Friday, Navarro requested “signed affidavits from Special Agents Walter Giardina and Sebastian Gardner denying the defendant requested a call for legal advice on the jetway where he was taken,” in addition to audio and video recordings of the arrest and transcripts of the conversations that took place.

Navarro claims he was strip-searched, placed in leg irons “for several hours,” denied a request for water, and not provided food.

Navarro is facing contempt of Congress charges for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He was arrested last week at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and charged in the case.