Former Big Lie Trump advisor Peter Navarro will be reporting to prison next Tuesday to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpeoena, if all goes as planned.
Navarro had used executive privilege as an excuse to thumb his nose at the House select committee that was investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — but his excuse did not hold up in court. (Nor did it hold up on the street, as seen in video below, posted by Republicans against Trump.)
"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," said his attorney in court papers disclosed on Sunday, via Politico.
This will make 74-year-old Navarro — convicted last September of two counts of contempt of Congress — the "first top adviser to Donald Trump to serve jail time" for a crime related to the former one-term president's attempt to overthrow the election, according to Politco.
Steve Bannon was convicted in 2022 for the same crime, and used the same executive privilege excuse, but was able to put off his four-month sentence while he appeals it. Meanwhile, Navarro is hoping for a last-minute escape.
"Dr. Navarro respectfully reiterates his request for an administrative stay," continued his attorney. "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."
From Politico:
Navarro, 74, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide documents and testimony to congressional investigators probing the root causes of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The committee subpoenaed Navarro in February 2022, and he quickly indicated he would refuse to comply, citing executive privilege. The House held Navarro in contempt two months later, and the Justice Department soon followed suit with criminal charges. …
Courts rarely permit convicted defendants to remain free while they appeal. However, Navarro contends that, like Bannon, his case presents unusual circumstances because of the complex intersection of his refusal to testify with executive privilege and immunity principles that have rarely been tested in court.
Navarro has claimed that Trump ordered him not to testify and instead to invoke executive privilege, but Mehta rejected this claim as well, noting that Navarro had offered no evidence that Trump in fact gave such an order. Trump had been far more explicit in ordering other former aides to assert the privilege.
