Washington: Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to co-operate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has been sentenced to four months behind bars.

He was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges, after former adviser Steve Bannon, who also received a four-month sentence but is free pending appeal.

Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House of Representatives January 6 committee. He served as a White House trade adviser under then-president Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying he couldn’t co-operate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. A judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he didn’t show Trump had actually invoked it.

Navarro said in court before his sentencing on Thursday (US time) that the House committee investigating the January 6 attack had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege.

“Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” he told the judge.

The judge told Navarro that it took “chutzpah” for him to assert that he accepted responsibility for his actions while also suggesting that his prosecution was politically motivated. “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” the judge said. “These are circumstances of your own making.”

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him. Responding to a question about why he didn’t initially seek a lawyer’s counsel, he told the judge, “I didn’t know what to do, sir.”