Drummond leads coalition warning federal contempt ruling could reach state courts

OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 6, 2026) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond today led a coalition of 11 states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rehear the contempt-of-Congress case against a former White House adviser. Peter Navarro was convicted for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled in Navarro's case last month that a witness can be convicted of contempt simply for deliberately refusing to comply with a subpoena, even if he mistakenly believed a legal privilege excused him from complying.

“This ruling will have a trickle-down effect on how Oklahoma courts read our own laws,” Drummond said. “Oklahoma’s Legislature write its rules down in plain text more than a century ago. It defined the mental state and built-in protections for witnesses who raise honest objections. Congress never made that choice, and a court should not make it for Congress. No American should face prison because a court, rather than a legislature, decided what ‘willfully’ means.”

Navarro has petitioned for rehearing en banc, asking all the court's judges to hear his appeal. The amicus brief supports that request and argues the panel misread the word “willfully” in the federal contempt statute. It warns the error won't stay confined to Washington, D.C., since state courts look to federal rulings when interpreting their own legislative-contempt laws. Drummond argues the panel's decision could reshape how states punish witnesses who defy legislative subpoenas, not just how the federal government does.

States joining Oklahoma in the brief include Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.