By Adriana Gomez Licon
Miami: Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro has reported to prison to begin serving his sentence for refusing to co-operate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Navarro was defiant in remarks to reporters on Wednesday (AEDT) before he headed to a federal lock-up in Miami, where he will serve a four-month sentence after being found guilty of contempt of Congress charges.
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro speaks to reporters before he heads to prison in Miami.Credit: AP
Navarro was found guilty in September of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the US House January 6 committee that investigated the attack.
He served as a White House trade adviser under then-president Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Navarro has maintained that he couldn’t co-operate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. Courts have rejected that argument, finding Navarro couldn’t prove Trump had actually invoked it.
“When I walk in that prison today, the justice system – such as it is – will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege,” Navarro told reporters across the street from the prison.
Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP
Navarro then got in a car with his lawyer to head to the lock-up, and the federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed later that Navarro was in custody.
Navarro had asked to stay free while he appealed his conviction to give the courts time to consider his challenge. But Washington’s federal appeals court denied his bid to stave off his sentence, finding his appeal wasn’t likely to reverse his conviction.
And Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday also refused to step in, saying in a written order that he had “no basis to disagree” with the appeals court. Roberts said his finding didn’t affect the eventual outcome of Navarro’s appeal.
Navarro was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon previously received a four-month sentence but a different judge allowed him to stay free pending appeal.
The House committee spent 18 months investigating the insurrection, interviewing more than 1000 witnesses, holding 10 hearings and obtaining more than 1 million pages of documents. In its final report, the panel ultimately concluded that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the election results and failed to act to stop his supporters from storming the Capitol.
AP
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