Grassley Releases FBI Docs on 2022 Navarro Arrest

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley on Tuesday shed light on the FBI's handling of the arrest of Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress.

Navarro was released from federal prison in late 2024, just in time to speak at the Republican National Convention. He and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon were both convicted of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee.

During his opening statement at a committee hearing on Tuesday, Grassley revealed that "whistleblowers have provided me additional records related to the Biden FBI political conduct against Peter Navarro."

"The first document is a request for physical surveillance on Navarro the day the FBI arrested him," he said. "The second document is the timeline of that surveillance... [the] FBI didn't arrest him at his house, which was literally right next to the FBI headquarters."

"Instead, they surveilled him and his fiance all morning, starting at his home, following them to the airport, and then arrested him in public at the Reagan Airport," he went on. "The way Navarro was treated is unnecessary... So to our average constituent, this is all history, but it's all pointing out the wrong of government using the power of government to go after people they're political people you don't like."

"We're pointing this all out because we can't have this repeated in the United States. We want to end to a right now, whether we have republican or democrat administrations, all evidence of your predecessors, total failures," he added.

Grassley also demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi provide him with additional information on the matter.