Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro listens as former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House, on Aug. 14, 2020.

Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro listens as former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House, on Aug. 14, 2020. / AP

A federal grand jury has indicted Peter Navarro on two counts of contempt of Congress after he failed to comply with a subpoena from the House of Representatives select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Navarro, former President Donald Trump's trade adviser, had refused to appear for a deposition and to produce documents for the committee investigating the siege of the Capitol that was intended to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election .

The indictment was returned on Thursday and unsealed on Friday. Navarro is scheduled to appear in court on Friday afternoon, according to the Justice Department.

Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and fines up to $100,000.

Navarro has argued he should be immune from testimony because he is shielded by executive privilege through former President Trump.

President Joe Biden, has argued the violent protest on Jan. 6, 2021, where pro-Trump rioters stormed through barricades and injured law enforcement officers, was a severe attack on democracy that doesn't deserve those legal shields.

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