On the eve of Peter Navarro’s first day in prison, the former White House aide to Donald Trump maintained Monday that his four-month sentence is a worthwhile “sacrifice,” considering the Americans who have died for their nation.
Appearing on Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast the same day the Supreme Court quashed his last-chance request to delay his sentence, Navarro felt it appropriate to refer to those who have “lost their lives for the defense of this country” while describing his own situation.
“Men and women of America throughout our history have shed blood—lost their lives—for the defense of this country, the defense of what we stand for, the defense of our values, the defense of our Constitution,” Navarro told Trump Jr. “And for me, it’s a much smaller sacrifice to be willing to go to prison, as I now have been ordered to do, to defend what is really one of the most important principles of the Constitution, which is the constitutional separation of powers.”
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Navarro is appealing his conviction for contempt of Congress, which resulted from his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee for records and testimony. Navarro had claimed that Trump had given him presidential immunity, and therefore he wasn’t legally required to comply. At the same time, Navarro had seemingly no reservations about talking to the press—including The Daily Beast—about his role in trying to keep Donald Trump in power on Jan. 6, 2021. He even pointed to his Jan. 6 book tour when petitioning for a delay in his trial.
Navarro’s citation of executive privilege ultimately didn’t hold up in court, and a jury swiftly convicted him last September on two contempt charges.
Still, the Trump stalwart expressed optimism Monday that his appeal will be worthwhile.
“My hope and my mission here is that U.S. v. Peter Navarro will in fact be a landmark constitutional case,” he said. “I believe it is, as it works its way through the appeals courts.”
Navarro must report to a federal prison in Miami before 2 p.m. Tuesday. Shortly after his initial arrest in June 2022, Navarro complained about having been handcuffed and put in “leg irons.”
“Who are these people? This is not America,” Navarro said in a Washington, D.C., courtroom then.
