Washington — Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday rejected an attempt by President Trump's former trade adviser Peter Navarro to stay in prison as he seeks to appeal his conviction for contempt of Congress, giving him four months. paved the way for him to begin serving his sentence. Tuesday in Florida.
Navarro was charged and convicted of failing to respond to a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Congressional investigators had sought documents and testimony from former White House officials related to their 2020 post-election actions and efforts to delay the certification of electoral votes.
he was there Sentenced to 4 months in prison In January. He appealed both his own conviction and the trial judge's decision to carry out his sentence while his appeal was further litigated. Mr. Navarro has long maintained that he believed he was bound by executive privilege when he refused to comply with the committee's requests, but the judge who presided over his case has provided evidence that that privilege was in fact exercised. It was ruled that there was no.
Navarro was ordered to report to a federal prison in Miami by Tuesday. His attorney declined to comment on Roberts' order.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has already rejected his request for a postponement of sentencing, saying it was unlikely he would get a new trial or have his conviction overturned. Ta.
Navarro's lawyers asked the Supreme Court to grant emergency relief and stay his surrender, allowing him to remain free pending his appeal because he poses no flight risk or threat to public safety. I argued that it was good.
“Mr. Navarro is the only former senior adviser to a president to be charged with contempt of Congress due to an assertion of executive privilege by the president he served as an adviser to,” his lawyers wrote in their court filing.
They argued to the judge that Navarro's contempt of Congress violation violated the separation of powers and that his conviction should be vacated and the charges against him dismissed.
His lawyers also argued that the questions Mr. Navarro intends to raise in his appeal, including his claim of executive privilege, are questions that have not been answered so far, thus warranting his release for now.
“Mr. Navarro does not dispute that his failure to comply with the Congressional subpoenas at issue was intentional; rather, such prosecution violates the principle of separation of powers. ,” they said. “Prior to Dr. Navarro's prosecution, the Department of Justice had never concluded that a senior adviser to the president could be charged with contempt of Congress for asserting executive privilege.”
The Justice Department opposed Navarro's request for release, arguing that he did not meet the criteria for such relief.
“There is no basis for disagreeing with the decision that Mr. Navarro waived these claims in the release process, which is distinct from the pending appeal on the merits,” Roberts wrote in his order. He acted solely as a judge overseeing emergency relief requests from the District of Columbia Circuit Court.
Navarro said in a statement that he would continue to appeal the case on its merits, adding that if the appeal fails, “the constitutional separation of powers will be irreparably undermined and the doctrine of executive privilege dating back to George Washington will no longer function.” It will disappear,” he said. “This is an important safeguard for effective presidential decision-making. There's a lot at stake here, and it's worth fighting for.”
The Biden administration says many of the records sought by the Jan. 6 task force are personal communications that do not suggest executive privilege, and Navarro said Trump actually claimed privilege. He does not dispute the district court's finding that he did not.
“If privilege was not asserted, it is no defense to the prosecution here,” wrote Solicitor General Elizabeth Preloger, who represents the federal government on the Supreme Court.
Mr. Preloger noted that presidents often refuse to assert executive authority in response to Congressional subpoenas, and if a subordinate, in this case Mr. Navarro, is able to overturn that decision, the president in the process The company's dominance would be “significantly eroded,” he said.
“Mr. Navarro's suggestion that he has a 'duty' to assert executive privilege even though former President Trump did not do so is a complete setback,” she wrote.
Navarro is not the first Trump administration official to be sentenced for defying the committee's Jan. 6 request, but he is the first to be sentenced to prison. Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress and sentenced to four months in prison. The judge overseeing Mr. Bannon's case suspended his sentence, saying his conviction was likely to be overturned as Mr. Bannon pursued his own appeal.