A top advisor to Donald Trump must serve time in prison while challenging his conviction. He was found guilty of not testifying to Congress about his role in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Peter Navarro, a 74-year-old economist, faces a four-month prison sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously decided that Navarro’s appeal is unlikely to change his conviction or sentence.
Navarro has the option to seek a ruling from the Supreme Court in his favor. However, such a move would be highly unusual. He must report to a prison in Miami by March 19, according to his lawyers.
Navarro’s lawyer has chosen not to comment on the matter.
Following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Navarro released a book. In it, he detailed a plan to overturn the election in Trump’s favor on the day votes were certified. He attributed this plan to Stephen K. Bannon, a right-wing podcast host and former Trump strategist. When a House committee issued subpoenas to both men for more information, they did not comply. Now, they are both contending with four-month prison sentences for contempt of Congress.
Navarro’s legal team pointed out that Bannon, who faced a similar situation, was released pending appeal.
Navarro argued that he was exempt from responding to the House committee due to Trump’s executive privilege. However, he lacked proof that Trump intended to use this privilege to prevent his testimony, and Trump has not supported his claim. Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed Navarro’s immunity claim as insufficient.
The D.C. Circuit stated that Navarro’s arguments would only be valid if the privilege had been formally invoked by the President, which did not occur.
Navarro contended that if a former president were incapacitated or deceased, an aide should still protect White House communications under executive privilege. Yet, the appellate judges noted that even if this privilege applied to Navarro, it wouldn’t excuse his total failure to comply with the subpoena. He was still required to submit documents and testify on matters not protected by the privilege.
The court also rejected Navarro’s failure to address the conclusion that the significant interest of Congress and the current president in investigating the Capitol attack outweighed any privilege claims by Trump. In 2021, the D.C. Circuit had already ruled that the Jan. 6 committee had the right to access White House records, despite Trump’s privilege claims, due to the constitutional significance of the matter. The Supreme Court chose not to review this decision.
All three judges on the panel for Navarro’s case were appointed by President Barack Obama.
At the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Navarro mentioned he was close to serving time in prison. He compared his and Trump’s legal predicaments, highlighting their unprecedented nature. Navarro noted he was the first senior White House advisor convicted of contempt of Congress, while Trump was the first former president to face criminal indictment.
Navarro was a controversial figure in Trump’s White House, known for his abrasive personality and extreme views. He was among several allies Trump relied on in late 2020 as he sought ways to remain in power. Trump’s call for a “wild” protest on Jan. 6 started with a link to a document of unproven voter fraud allegations compiled by Navarro.
In his book, Navarro described a plan to delay the vote count with 24 hours of speeches from Republicans in swing states won by Joe Biden. The aim was to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results from those states, initiating a process that could lead to the House deciding the election in Trump’s favor.