The motion filed by the DOJ on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., states Navarro was subject to the Presidential Records Act while working as a senior White House adviser from January 2017 until January 2021, The Epoch Times reported.
After a president leaves office, "[t]he United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records," the act states.
Navarro allegedly used "At least one non-official email account" to send and receive messages while working in the White House, according to the department.
"There is no genuine dispute of fact that Dr. Navarro used at least one unofficial email account to conduct official business, that those records are the property of the United States, and that Dr. Navarro has refused to return the records to the United States," the DOJ wrote.
The department sent its own letter to Navarro in June 2022.
The attorneys later estimated that between 200 and 250 of the documents were PRA records.
In August, the DOJ initially sued Navarro for allegedly violating the PRA. Then, Navarro's lawyers said that he "Has never refused to provide records to the government." "As detailed in our recent letter to the Archives, Mr. Navarro instructed his lawyers to preserve all such records, and he expects the government to follow standard processes in good faith to allow him to produce records. Instead, the government chose to file its lawsuit today," Navarro's attorneys told The Hill newspaper.
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