Prosecutor in Peter Navarro contempt case has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats

The Trump Justice Department is attempting to abandon its previous defenses of the Biden-era prosecution of Peter Navarro — even as the Trump DOJ seeks to appoint an outside lawyer to continue to affirm his conviction on appeal,

But Navarro, a Trump White House adviser,  doesn’t want to let the DOJ walk away without explaining itself.

Navarro — a top adviser to Donald Trump during his first administration as well as in his second — was charged by Biden's Justice Department in 2022 for refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the Democrat-led House select committee investigating January 6, 2021. 

Navarro repeatedly asserted claims of executive privilege, but President Joe Biden and his DOJ rejected this assertion, and Navarro was convicted in 2023 and sentenced in 2024, when he spent four months behind bars. The trial judge was Judge Amit P. Mehta, who was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 2014 by then-President Barack Obama.

Trump's DOJ seeks affirmance of conviction but on other grounds

Navarro, who is currently an Assistant to President Trump and the Director of the White House’s Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, appealed his conviction in 2024.

The Biden DOJ filed a lengthy brief defending its prosecution of Navarro last year. The Trump DOJ has now told the appeals court that it wants to abandon the arguments put forward by the Biden DOJ, but that it also wants an outside lawyer to argue to sustain Navarro’s conviction during the ongoing appeals process at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Navarro has objected to the appointment of an outside attorney.

Navarro doesn't want to let the DOJ walk away without explaining its own position on the controversy. Navarro first filed his appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in January 2024.

“I Went To Prison So You Won’t Have To” is not just the title of my new book — it’s why I’ve kept fighting this appeal even after serving my sentence. If I lose, future presidential advisers of either party could face jail for honoring executive privilege and defending the Constitution’s separation of powers,” Navarro told Just the News.

Navarro added: “This isn’t just a legal duty — it’s a moral one. DOJ opposed my release pending appeal by falsely insisting there were no substantial questions of law. Now, by trying to withdraw its own brief without explanation, it admits those questions exist. I can’t get back the four months I lost in prison to the Democrat’s lawfare, but DOJ can and must explain itself.”  

DOJ's lawyer turns out to be donor to Biden, other Democrats 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Hobel has been the main federal prosecutor defending the Biden DOJ’s prosecution of Navarro and the Navarro's appeal. 

Hobel donated more than $5,600 to Biden for President in 2020 along with another $1,000 to the Biden Victory Fund in 2020, according to FEC records. Hobel was also a supporter of then-Vice President Kamala Harris, donating $1,250 to Harris for President in 2023 and another $1,500 to Harris for President in 2024, according to FEC records.

Hobel has worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from April 2016 through the present, according to his LinkedIn page, and was previously an Obama-era advisor to the Special Envoy for Guantánamo Closure from September 2014 to August 2015.

Hobel had also donated $50 to the unsuccessful Senate campaign for Louisiana Democrat Foster Campbell in 2016, $50 to the successful congressional campaign of Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger in 2018, $100 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2019, and $50 to the successful Senate campaign of Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock in 2022.

Navarro case defended on grounds of executive privilege

“Dr. Navarro immediately and repeatedly asserted executive privilege in response to the subpoena, and Dr. Navarro in fact did not comply with the subpoena by providing documents or appearing for a scheduled deposition,” Navarro’s lawyers argued in a brief to the appeals court in July 2024. 

“Instead, Dr. Navarro implored the Select Committee to confer with former President Trump concerning the implication of executive privilege, but the Select Committee never made any attempt to confer with former President Trump or any of his aides concerning the subpoena.”

“Even if former President Trump had invoked executive privilege, the district court correctly concluded that the Committee’s need for the requested documents and testimony would have outweighed that privilege,” the Biden DOJ told the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a September 2024 brief. “Finally, the district court correctly concluded that, even if Navarro had a plausible privilege claim, he properly faced contempt liability given his total failure to comply with the subpoena.”

Navarro’s lawyers and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia — now led by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro — filed a joint status report in late August where it was revealed that the Trump DOJ would not be taking the same position on executive privilege as the Biden DOJ had.

The Biden DOJ had targeted a number of former Trump allies — including Navarro — related to their alleged refusal to comply with subpoenas for testimony and records issued by the Democrat-led House committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021. 

Ironically, Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder was similarly cited in 2012 for contempt of congress, but in that matter was never prosecuted, because President Obama and the DOJ insisted that Holder was protected by executive privilege.  

The White House Counsel’s Office for President Biden said in February 2022 that it was rejecting Navarro’s arguments. “President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the  purview of the Select Committee,” the Biden White House said. 

The Biden DOJ declined to charge former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump social media director Dan Scavino, who were also cited by Congress for contempt, but it did indict Navarro and Trump ally Steve Bannon for refusing to comply with subpoenas.

Navarro: "the Department of Injustice"

The day he was released from prison, Navarro spoke at the Republican National Convention in July 2024, where he slammed the “Department of Injustice.”

“Yes indeed, this morning I did walk out of a federal prison in Miami. Joe Biden and his ‘Department of Injustice’ put me there. … I’ve got a very simple message for you: if they can come for me, and if they can come for Donald Trump, be careful, they will come for you,” Navarro said on the third night of the RNC. “If we don’t control our government, their government will control us.”

After defeating Harris last year, Trump announced in December 2024 that Navarro would be a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in the Trump White House, calling him “a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it.”