‘Never mention her’: White House aide Peter Navarro exploded at Jeanine Pirro on Steve Bannon’s show

According to The Daily Beast, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro criticized U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro during a live appearance on Steve Bannon’s show. Navarro’s comments focused on Pirro’s decision not to fire a prosecutor connected to his 2023 conviction.

Bannon had suggested that President Donald Trump stop talking about Pirro and instead focus on promoting the administration’s economic record. Pirro had drawn criticism from Trump after she blamed a construction error, rather than vandalism, for damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Navarro agreed with Bannon’s suggestion at first, calling it a “great idea.” But he then shifted the conversation to his own frustration with Pirro over her handling of a prosecutor in her office.

Navarro cited a prosecutor tied to his 2023 conviction

Navarro, 77, told Bannon, “Do me a favor, Steve. When I’m on camera, and you don’t want to talk about something like Jeanine Pirro, never mention her friggin’ name to me because that woman still refuses to fire John Crabb, the prosecutor, who was involved in putting you and me behind bars, okay?”

Navarro spent four months in prison after he was convicted in 2023 on two counts of contempt of Congress. The charges came after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the January 6 Capitol attack.

John Crabb was a top prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office for D.C. at the time. He was involved in the case against Navarro, and also against Bannon, who was convicted on similar contempt of Congress charges and served four months in prison for defying the same House committee’s subpoena.

After Trump returned to office last year, Crabb was demoted. The demotion came as retribution for his role in prosecuting cases against Trump’s allies and people involved in the January 6 riot. However, neither Pirro nor her predecessor, Ed Martin, has fired him. Pirro has faced scrutiny before over her handling of January 6-related matters, including her response when questioned on camera about a $1.7 billion fund for Capitol rioters.

Bannon, 72, tried to stop Navarro during the segment, saying, “Stop, stop, stop. We love, we love Jeanine.” Navarro continued, asking, “I’m just tellin’ you, that guy – how is that guy still working here? Who pointed me in a courtroom and said I was above the law. You get my drift. Don’t get me stoked up.”

Navarro then addressed Pirro directly on camera, saying, “He should be gone! Jeanine, are you listening?” Bannon responded by distancing himself from the comments, saying, “I want Judge Jeanine to know that I had nothing to do with this outburst; this is Navarro.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. declined to comment on the exchange. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pirro has also faced separate criticism over the Reflecting Pool case, after the lawyer for a man she publicly identified as a vandal demanded an apology once the charges were dropped.

Navarro had already raised the issue publicly on the social media platform X last week. He wrote, “And I’m still wondering why @JudgeJeanine still hasn’t fired the prosecutor John Crabb in her office who helped put me and Steve Bannon unjustly behind bars despite REPEATED urgings. VERY Disappointing. Talk ain’t walk.”

Trump has previously left open the possibility of firing Pirro after she attributed the Reflecting Pool damage to a construction problem instead of vandalism, which was Trump’s preferred explanation for the damage.