Peter Navarro’s last-ditch bid to avoid prison slapped down by appeals court
A federal appeals court has dashed former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s hopes of dodging a four-month prison sentence that is set to start next week.
Navarro, 74, filed a late-stage request over the weekend to stay free while his team appeals his conviction, but the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Thursday that his argument was not compelling.
“Appellant has not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely to result in reversal,” the court wrote in an unsigned order.
Circuit Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard, and Robert Wilkins considered Navarro’s motion for release pending appeal. All three judges were appointed by former President Barack Obama.
Navarro has been ordered to report to a federal prison in Miami by March 19 to begin his term. He was convicted on Sept. 7 of two counts of contempt of Congress and sentenced this past January.
Navarro was charged with contempt after defying a subpoena for documents and testimony from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Navarro maintained that executive privilege, which grants a president authority to withhold certain types of material, precluded him from heeding the congressional demand.
He is now set to become the first high-ranking official in former President Donald Trump’s White House to get thrown in jail on charges pertaining to the 45th president’s 2020 election machinations.
Navarro is the second Trump administration official convicted for defying the House Jan. 6 Committee. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon was found guilty in 2022 of two contempt charges and ordered to serve four months in prison and pay a $6,500 fine. He has appealed that conviction.
Additionally, Congress also referred former White House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to the Justice Department for contempt of Congress.
But the DOJ declined to prosecute Scavino or Meadows.
Separately, Navarro is battling a civil suit from the DOJ over records it contends he did not return to the National Archives and Records Administration after his White House departure.
Navarro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
