Peter Navarro on path to jail after SCOTUS denies his last-minute appeal
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is set to report to a Miami federal prison Tuesday after losing his last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice John Roberts rejected Navarro’s petition Monday for release pending his appeal of conviction for two contempt of Congress charges on Sept. 7, 2023.
“I see no basis to disagree with the determination,” Roberts wrote, referring to a lower court ruling that paved the way for Navarro’s forthcoming prison stint.
With that denial, Navarro is out of options.
He was sentenced to four months behind bars for defying a subpoena from the since-defunct House Select Jan. 6 committee for testimony and documents.
Navarro is currently appealing that conviction. He is now poised to become the highest-ranking former Trump administration official to get tossed in the clink based on charges related to the 2020 election.
The 74-year-old argued that Trump’s executive privilege precluded him from cooperating with the panel.
Executive privilege grants a president authority to withhold certain material, but the courts determined that didn’t apply to Navarro.
Navarro was not the only Trump administration alum to defy a subpoena and be held in contempt of Congress.
Former White House strategist Steve Bannon did as well and was found guilty in 2022 of two contempt charges and ordered to serve four months in prison and pay a $6,500 fine. Bannon has appealed that conviction.
Congress also referred former White House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress.
But the DOJ declined to prosecute Scavino or Meadows.
Navarro is battling a civil suit from the DOJ over records it contends he did not return to the National Archives and Records Administration after his White House departure.
“Justice Roberts took care to note that his reason for denial was ‘distinct from [my] pending appeal on the merits.’ That appeal on the merits will continue and if I fail in that appeal – after nonetheless serving my full prison term — the constitutional separation of powers will be irreparably damaged,” Navarro said in a statement.
“There is much at stake here and it is worth the fight.”
