(RepublicanNews.org) – Peter Navarro, a former Trump aide, reported to federal prison in Miami, Florida, after being convicted of contempt of Congress. Navarro, who served as a trade advisor under Donald Trump, was handed a four-month prison sentence for refusing to obey House Committee subpoenas relating to the January 6th, 2021, Capitol Hill riot.
The 74-year-old had requested that he be allowed to remain at liberty while he appealed his conviction, but the Supreme Court rejected this request on Monday, March 18th, the day before Navarro handed himself into the correctional facility. His imprisonment does not interfere with his appeal, which is ongoing. Throughout his court case, Navarro has insisted that he did nothing wrong in refusing to cooperate with House Committee summons, invoking what he said was his right to “executive privilege”.
Although members of the committee told him that they intended to cover topics unrelated to his privileged conversations with the former president, Navarro remained tight-lipped, claiming that he should not be made to give testimony. The judge who sentenced him, Judge Amit Mehta, told him that he had been wrong to refuse the subpoenas and that he had an “obligation” as an American citizen to assist Congress in their investigations.
Navarro held a press conference in a nearby parking lot before entering prison, in which he again asserted his right to invoke executive privilege, and described his conviction as evidence of a partisan abuse of the justice system that should concern all Americans. He reiterated his commitment to the appeals process, saying that he intended to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court and wanted to get the matter out into the open. He added that he was fed up with Donald Trump and his supporters being demonized as “extremists.”
Navarro will spend his four-month sentence in a low-security facility for elderly male prisoners located within earshot of the local zoo. He has hired a prison consultant whose job it is to advise him about the realities of prison life and make the process easier. Although his consultant told reporters that Navarro was “nervous” about stepping into such an unfamiliar environment, Navarro said that he would cross the prison’s threshold “proudly” and did not wish for a pardon from President Biden.
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