The Justice Department moved Tuesday to dismiss a lawsuit launched during the Biden administration that aimed to get emails from Trump adviser Peter Navarro‘s personal account, on which he allegedly conducted government business.
A joint stipulation filed by the DOJ and an attorney for Navarro in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did not explain the reasoning for dropping the case but called for the lawsuit to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the claims cannot be refiled, with each side bearing responsibility for its legal fees.
The August 2022 lawsuit claimed Navarro had failed to turn over presidential records by not giving the National Archives emails from his personal account pertaining to government business in his role in President Donald Trump‘s first term.
“Mr. Navarro is wrongfully retaining Presidential records that are the property of the United States, and which constitute part of the permanent historical record of the prior administration,” the lawsuit filed by the Biden DOJ claimed. “Mr. Navarro’s wrongful retention of Presidential records violates District of Columbia law, federal common law, and the [Presidential Records Act].”
The lawsuit was one of the prosecutions sought by the Justice Department under the Biden administration. The initial filing came months after the Biden DOJ arrested Navarro and charged him with contempt of Congress for failing to hand over documents and testify before the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee.
Navarro was one of two Trump allies, along with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, charged with contempt of Congress, a rarely prosecuted crime, by the DOJ under the Biden administration. He served four months in prison after being convicted on those charges.
Under the second Trump administration, Navarro is an adviser to the president again.
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The August 2022 lawsuit also came the same month the Biden Justice Department raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and claimed the then-former president had improperly maintained records belonging to the National Archives under the Presidential Records Act.
The Biden DOJ appointed special counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents after Trump declared his 2024 candidacy in November 2022. Trump was indicted on charges that he had mishandled classified documents, but the charges were later dismissed.