Chief Justice John Roberts declined Monday to pause former Trump White House official Peter Navarro’s prison sentence.
The decision, which Roberts noted is “distinct from his pending appeal on the merits,” means Navarro will have to report to a Miami prison tomorrow as he was ordered to do earlier this month. Navarro asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the sentence pending the appeal of his conviction on contempt of Congress charges over defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
“This application concerns only the question whether the applicant, Peter Navarro, has met his burden to establish his entitlement to relief under the Bail Reform Act,” wrote Roberts, who oversees emergency petitions from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The Court of Appeals disposed of the proceeding on the ground that Navarro ‘forfeited’ any argument in this release proceeding challenging the District Court’s conclusion that ‘executive privilege was not invoked,’ ‘forfeited any challenge’ to the conclusion that relief would not be required in any event because of the qualified nature of executive privilege, and ‘forfeited any challenge’ to the conclusion that apart from executive privilege, he was still obligated to appear before Congress and answer questions seeking information outside the scope of the asserted privilege,” Roberts wrote. “I see no basis to disagree with the determination that Navarro forfeited those arguments in the release proceeding, which is distinct from his pending appeal on the merits.”
Previously, both the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied Navarro’s request to stay the sentence pending his appeal. Navarro was sentenced to four months in jail and a $9,500 fine in January.
In their application Friday, Navarro’s attorneys highlighted that he is the “only former senior presidential advisor to be prosecuted for contempt of congress following an assertion of executive privilege by the president that advisor served.”
“Here, despite more than four decades of interpreting the separation of powers doctrine to preclude § 192 contempt of congress prosecutions as against senior presidential advisors, the Department of Justice has concluded that Dr. Navarro’s prosecution is permissible because former President Trump failed to properly invoke executive privilege,” the petition states.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Navarro in June 2022 for failing to produce documents as required by the Jan. 6 committee and declining to testify.
Katelynn Richardson on March 18, 2024
