Former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro on Monday was ordered to report to federal prison next week for the four-month-long sentence he was given after he did not show up for a deposition with the January 6 Committee in February 2022.
District Judge Amit Mehta told Navarro, who was convicted last year by a D.C. jury on two counts of contempt of Congress, to report to a prison in Miami on March 19. Navarro had hoped to avoid prison time while his case went through the appeals process.
The 74-year-old former Trump economic advisor was sentenced and ordered to pay a fine of $9,500 in January after his conviction in September 2023. Navarro has maintained that he did nothing wrong and was not obligated to meet with lawmakers on the January 6 Committee, which was disbanded after Republicans took control of the House in January 2023.
“Dr. Navarro has now been ordered to report to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, FCI Miami, on or before 2:00PM EDT on March 19, 2024,” Navarro’s lawyer said in a filing on Sunday. “Accordingly, Dr. Navarro respectfully reiterates his request for an administrative stay … Should this Court deny Dr. Navarro’s motion, he respectfully requests an administrative stay so as to permit the Supreme Court review of this Court’s denial.”
Throughout the process, Navarro has maintained that executive privilege should shield him from being forced to meet with the January 6 Committee. His arguments have so far been rejected, with Mehta not allowing him to use executive privilege as his defense during trial.
“For the first time in history, a senior presidential advisor has been convicted of contempt of Congress after asserting executive privilege over a congressional subpoena,” Navarro’s lawyer said. “Dr. Navarro has appealed and will raise a number of issues on appeal that he contends are likely to result in the reversal of his conviction, or a new trial.”
The Department of Justice charged Navarro after Congress voted to hold him in contempt after they subpoenaed him to meet with House lawmakers and produce certain documents that they had requested.
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The House also previously voted, mostly along party lines, to recommend other Trump aides – including Steve Bannon, Dan Scavino, and Mark Meadows – to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress charges. Bannon, who was also convicted of contempt of Congress charges, was sentenced to four months in prison but has yet to serve any time as his case goes through the appeals process.
After he was indicted, Navarro said that the January 6 Committee was trying to intimidate him.
“Congress has weaponized the investigatory powers of congress in a way which is unconstitutional,” Navarro said in June 2022 after a court hearing on the indictment. “The people of America need to understand, Congress has the right to investigate, but only for non-punitive, legislative purposes. What that committee is doing is investigating for punitive purposes.”
“They intercepted me getting on the plane and they put me in handcuffs, they bring me here, they put me in leg irons, they stick me in a cell,” he said. “They just came with the full force of the federal government and put the hammer down trying to intimidate me.”