Judge orders Peter Navarro to turn over Trump-era emails

Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been ordered to immediately surrender emails from his time at the White House.

"Navarro has undergone an extensive court battle over whether he is obligated to turn over emails he sent through a private account during his time in the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee, rejected several different arguments against turning them in in an opinion filed Thursday," the Washington Examiner reported.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly gave Navarro and his team 30 days to turn over the emails.

"Kollar-Kotelly ruled that Navarro's emails fell under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Records Act, which requires work-related messages sent from a personal account must be forwarded to an official account within 20 business days," reported Washington Examiner.

"Dr. Navarro contends that he has no statutory duties under the PRA. … This position would defeat the entire purpose of the statute, i.e., to ensure that Presidential records, as defined, are collected, maintained and made available to the public," Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

"The PRA makes plain that presidential advisors such as Dr. Navarro are part and parcel of the statutory scheme in that they are required to preserve Presidential records during their tenure so that they can be transferred to [the National Archives and Records Administration] at the end of an administration," she continued.

"All the emails in Dr. Navarro’s personal email account, whether created or received, are therefore subject to being assessed as potential Presidential records if they arose out of his employment in the administration," she added.

Additionally, Navarro is on trial for two charges over his defiance of a subpoena related to his actions Jan. 6.