As a result of his conviction for contempt of Congress, Navarro became the first senior Trump official to serve jail time in connection with the attack on January 6, and he also became the first former White House official to do so. After being found guilty of contempt of Congress charges, Navarro made combative statements to reporters at a petrol station before heading to a federal jail in Miami. He will serve a four-month sentence.
The U.S. House committee that looked into the 2021 capitol attack subpoenaed records and Navarro was found guilty in September of refusing to comply with the subpoena. In 2020, when Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election, he was a trade adviser in the Trump administration and later advocated for the Republican candidate’s unfounded accusations of widespread voter fraud.
Navarro has insisted that Trump’s invocation of presidential privilege prevented him from cooperating with the committee. The courts did not buy Navarro’s claim because they determined Trump had not really invoked it. According to Navarro, who spoke to reporters on Tuesday from across the street from the prison, “the justice system — such as it is — will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege” when he entered the prison.
Later on Tuesday, the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Navarro was indeed in custody, after which he and his lawyer boarded a vehicle and headed to the jail. In order to allow the courts time to evaluate his challenge, Navarro had requested to remain free while he appealed his conviction. However, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to delay sentencing because the federal appeals court in Washington determined that his case was unlikely to result in a reversal of his conviction.
In a written decision, Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court stated that he has “no basis to disagree” with the appeals court, further refusing to step in on Monday. According to Roberts, his decision will have no bearing on how Navarro’s appeal turns out in the end. Navarro joined a small group of Trump associates found guilty of contempt of Congress. A different court had earlier granted former White House advisor Steve Bannon leave to appeal after he had received a four-month term.
During an 18-month investigation, the House committee questioned over a thousand witnesses, had ten hearings, and obtained documents totaling over one million pages. Trump was found to have participated in a “multi-part conspiracy” to reverse the election results and to have failed to intervene when his followers stormed the Capitol, according to the panel’s final report.
