Navarro had allegedly ignored several emails from NARA requesting the emails. Navarro is wrongfully retaining Presidential records that are the property of the United States, and which constitute part of the permanent historical records of the prior administration,” the complaint read. The Justice Department invoked this statute when they filed a civil suit against Navarro last August. The Presidential Records Act (PRA) dictates that federal employees are supposed to turn any records pertaining to the president, vice president or other covered employees into the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) within twenty days of the record’s creation. But he’s refused to turn them over to the government, unless the DOJ offers him a “grant of immunity” in exchange. Last summer, Navarro’s legal team told the Justice Department that he was in possession of about hundreds of emails on a ProtonMail account from his time in the White House. “Accordingly, the Court should deny the motion for a stay pending appeal, and supervise the immediate return of the records already ordered to be produced,” the DOJ wrote. The prosecutors urged the judge to deny his motion for appeal, and facilitate Navarro immediately handing over the documents. “Defendant cannot be irreparably harmed by producing documents he has no right to possess in the first place.”

Navarro, as this Court found, has no possessory right to the records he does not own the records and he was statutorily obligated to have incorporated them into the White House records system within twenty days of creation, which he concededly did not do,” the DOJ wrote. On Saturday, DOJ lawyers filed a motion pushing back on his efforts to hold onto the documents after months of courtroom bickering.

Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and asked District Judge Kollar-Kotelly to stay her ruling while he appealed. Last week, Navarro said he intended to appeal the case to the U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled against Navarro. The Justice Department sued him over the records last August.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s former trade adviser and a key Big Lie booster, has been harboring hundreds of government records that he’s appealing in federal court to keep.

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