Washington — Peter Navarro, who served as White House commerce adviser to former President Donald Trump, turned himself at a federal jail in Miami on Tuesday to begin serving a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena.
His give up got here someday after Chief Justice John Roberts rejected his Eleventh-hour bid to stay free whereas he appeals his conviction for contempt of Congress.
At a press convention at a strip mall throughout the road from the jail earlier than turning himself in, Navarro claimed his case represents an “unprecedented assault” on the separation of powers and government privilege.
“When I walk in that jail right this moment, the justice system equivalent to it’s can have accomplished a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and government privilege,” he instructed a gaggle of reporters.
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Navarro pledged to attraction his conviction as much as the Supreme Court and claimed his conviction stemmed from the actions of lawmakers, prosecutors and judges who’re “Trump-haters.” There is not any proof that his prosecution was politically motivated.
“This is the partisan weaponization of our judicial system,” Navarro mentioned, taking difficulty with a ruling that barred him from presenting sure defenses to the jury that’s now one of many topics of his attraction.
He is the primary former White House official to go to jail after being convicted of contempt of Congress.
Navarro was charged and located responsible after he refused to adjust to a subpoena from the House choose committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Congressional investigators had been searching for paperwork and testimony from the previous White House official tied to his put up 2020-election conduct and efforts to delay the certification of Electoral College votes.
He was sentenced to 4 months in jail in January. He appealed each his conviction and the trial choose’s determination to implement his sentence because the attraction is additional litigated. Navarro has lengthy held that he thought he was sure by government privilege when he refused to adjust to the committee’s calls for, however the choose overseeing his case dominated there was no proof that the privilege was truly invoked.
Navarro has been ordered to show himself into federal jail in Miami by Tuesday.
A 3-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals already rejected his bid to delay the sentence, writing he was unlikely to safe a brand new trial or reverse his conviction.
In urging the Supreme Court to grant him emergency aid and put a maintain on his give up, Navarro’s legal professionals argued that he’s neither a flight danger nor a risk to public security, and due to this fact must be allowed to stay free whereas he pursues his attraction.
“Dr. Navarro is the one former senior presidential advisor to be prosecuted for contempt of Congress following an assertion of government privilege by the president that advisor served,” his attorneys wrote of their request to the court docket.
They instructed the justices that Navarro’s prosecution for contempt of Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine, so his conviction should be reversed and the indictment towards him dismissed.
His authorized staff additionally argued that the questions Navarro plans to boost on attraction, which contain the assertion of government privilege, are ones that haven’t been answered earlier than, and due to this fact warrant his launch for now.
“Dr. Navarro doesn’t dispute that his failure to adjust to the congressional subpoena at difficulty was deliberate. Rather, he contests that any such prosecution was per the separation of powers doctrine,” they mentioned. “Not as soon as earlier than Dr. Navarro’s prosecution has the Department of Justice concluded a senior presidential advisor could also be prosecuted for contempt of Congress following an assertion of government privilege.”
The Justice Department opposed Navarro’s bid for launch, and argued that he fell wanting assembly the usual for such aid.
Roberts wrote in his order that he noticed “no foundation to disagree with the willpower that Navarro forfeited these arguments within the launch continuing, which is distinct from his pending attraction on the deserves.” He acted alone because the justice who oversees requests from emergency aid arising from the District of Columbia Circuit.
Many of the information the Jan. 6 choose committee was searching for had been private communications that could not implicate government privilege, the Biden administration mentioned, and Navarro isn’t contesting the district court docket’s discovering that Trump didn’t truly assert the privilege.
“If privilege was by no means asserted, it can’t be a protection to the prosecution right here,” wrote Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the federal authorities earlier than the Supreme Court.
Prelogar famous that presidents usually decline to claim government privilege in response to congressional subpoenas, and mentioned the president’s superiority in that course of could be “gravely undermined” if a subordinate — Navarro on this case — might override that willpower.
Navarro’s “suggestion that he was ‘duty-bound’ to assert government privilege however former President Trump’s failure to claim it thus will get issues precisely backward,” she wrote.
Navarro was not the primary Trump administration official to be convicted of defying Jan. 6 Committee calls for, however he would be the first to report back to jail. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was discovered responsible of two counts of contempt of Congress and sentenced to 4 months in jail, however the choose overseeing his case paused the jail time period as Bannon pursues an attraction of his personal, writing it was seemingly his conviction might be reversed.
