Peter Navarro, the former White House adviser to Donald Trump, has been ordered to report to a prison in Miami on March 19 at the latest after being handed a four-month sentence following his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.
Economist Navarro, who was convicted last year for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee, could now become the first former Trump official to be imprisoned over crimes relating to efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election. In a filing late Sunday to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, his attorneys have now revealed that he could be locked up by next Tuesday.
“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,” they wrote. “Accordingly, Dr. Navarro respectfully reiterates his request for an administratively 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.”
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Navarro, 74, was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee in Feb. 2022, with the House panel seeking testimony about the events that led up to the Capitol riot. Navarro refused to comply, citing executive privilege. After being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in September, Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison in January and also ordered to pay a $9,500 fine.
Prosecutors had sought a six-month sentence, arguing that he’d “thumbed his nose at congressional authority” and “chose allegiance to former President Trump over the rule of law.”
His conviction followed that of Steve Bannon, who became the first former Trump adviser to be found guilty on charges related to ignoring a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. Bannon was similarly sentenced to four months in prison, but a judge in his case allowed him to stay out of jail while he appeals his conviction.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who presided in Navarro’s case, has not granted a similar stay. Navarro’s lawyers are now asking an appeals court panel of judges to allow him to remain out of custody for his own appellate process.
During his sentencing, Navarro told Mehta that he had “an honest belief that privilege had been invoked” and that he was “torn” when he received the subpoena. He had claimed that former President Donald Trump told him not to testify and invoke privilege, but Mehta rejected the claim on the grounds that Navarro had not proved that the former president made such an instruction.
“They had a job to do and you made it harder,” Mehta said of Navarro’s refusal to comply with the subpoena. “It’s really that simple.” The judge also said Navarro’s lawyers’ claim that he had “accepted responsibility” for what he’d done was “hard to reconcile” with Navarro’s argument that he was being subjected to a “political persecution.”
