Florida [US]: Former White House advisor to Donald Trump, Peter Navarro, reported to a federal prison in Miami on Tuesday afternoon to serve a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional conviction, The Hill reported.
Notably, Navarro has become the first Trump administration official to be imprisoned over his role in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Reacting to the sentence, the former White House official said that ‘they’ are coming after Donald Trump with the same “tactics, tools and strategies.”
“They can put me in prison; they can put you in prison,” Navarro said in a press conference just before he reported to the facility.
“Make no mistake about that, and make no mistake about this: They are coming after Donald Trump with the same tactics, tools and strategies they used to put me over there today,” he said. “If they come for me, they can come for you.”
Navarro’s last-ditch bid to remain free while appealing his contempt of Congress conviction was shot down Monday evening by US Chief Justice John Roberts in a rare “in-chambers” opinion, a written explanation for his ruling on a case he didn’t refer to the full court for consideration.
Roberts said he denied Navarro’s application because the ex-Trump White House economic adviser forfeited any argument challenging the district court’s conclusion that executive privilege was not invoked by Trump, citing an appeals court’s decision.
Navarro, 74, was convicted last year of two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the probe, and another for skipping his deposition before the selection House committee that investigated the events surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as reported by The Hill.
At trial, the district judge barred him from using executive privilege as part of his defence after finding that he failed to prove privilege was ever invoked by former President Trump.
Defence attorneys said the decision “hamstrung” their defence, and Navarro told the judge during his sentencing that he had an “honest belief” executive privilege had been invoked.
“This is the partisan weaponization of our judicial system,” Navarro said Tuesday, railing against the district and appellate judges who oversaw his case as “Democrats from start to finish.”
Like Navarro, ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon was also convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year and sentenced to four months in prison, but a different judge said he could remain free pending appeal.
Bannon argued his case before a federal appeals court in November but has yet to serve any time in prison.
Navarro further added that he does not want a pardon from Trump if he is re-elected or from President Biden, adding that he still expects his case to be decided by the Supreme Court on its merits, The Hill reported.
“It’s crying out for the Supreme Court to do this,” Navarro said of his appeal. “But the tragedy here is, because I have not been released pending appeal, I will have already done my time before that is done.
“But that’s the price of living in Joe Biden’s America right now,” he added. “God bless you all. I’ll see you on the other side.”
