More than 18 months after the Trump administration’s last day in office, the US government is still trying to recover federal records from one of former president Donald Trump’s closest advisers.
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against ex-White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy director Peter Navarro, alleging that Mr Navarro has refused to turn over emails sent and recieved from his personal email account that have been determined to be presidential records — and thus the property of the United States.
Mr Navarro, who in June was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee, was found to have conducted government business on his personal ProtonMail email account by investigators working for the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
The House’s discovery was made known to the National Archives and Records Administration, which notified Mr Navarro that he is required by law to turn over copies of the emails in question to the Archivist of the United States.
On July 22, Mr Navarro’s attorney informed Nara that a search of his email archives had found between 200 and 250 emails that could be considered presidential records, but five days later Nara was told that the ex-Trump aide would not return the emails — which are legally government property — absent a grant of immunity to prevent him from being charged criminally over the illegal retention of government records.
In a civil complaint filed before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Department attorneys said Mr Navarro “has unjustly retained property of the United States in the form of Presidential records” and noted that the value of such records “cannot currently be determined because Defendant is the only one with access to the contents of all of the Presidential records on his non-official email and/or electronic messaging accounts”.
The lawsuit asks the court to issue a “writ of replevin” — an order authorising the government to take the property it is entitled to from Mr Navarro — as well as an order requiring the ex-Trump aide to cooperate with any federal officials tasked with enforcing the first order, plus an award of monetary damages and attorney fees.
