Former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro holds a press conference before turning himself into a federal prison in Miami, Florida on March 19, 2024.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request by Peter Navarro, a former adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, to be released from prison while he appeals his four-month prison sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee. House of Representatives investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol building. revolt.
The order In denying Navarro's request for release pending appeal, it stated only that his request was directed to Judge Neil Gorsuch and was referred to the trial court, which denied it.
It was the second time in six weeks that the Supreme Court shot down Navarro's efforts to suspend his prison sentence as he continued to challenge a guilty verdict on two counts of contempt of Congress.
Navarro, 74, surrendered to a federal prison in Miami on March 19 to begin serving his sentence.
Navarro was charged after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House of Representatives committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, when a violent mob of Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol and temporarily halted the transfer of power to President Joe Biden postponed.
Navarro claimed that the doctrine of executive privilege prevented him from responding to the subpoena. But much of the information sought by the committee was not covered by executive privilege, and Trump did not use executive privilege in the first place, U.S. Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar noted in March. submit to the Supreme Court.
She responded to Navarro's March 15 request to the Supreme Court for his release pending the appeal of his conviction.
On March 18, Chief Justice John Roberts denied that request in a letter opinion that he saw “no basis for disagreeing” with lower courts' rulings that Navarro “wasted” arguments regarding executive privilege. Roberts noted that the release proceedings are “separate from his pending appeal on the merits” of the case.
On April 2, Navarro's attorneys renewed his bid to halt the jail reporting order, this time asking Gorsuch to consider the request.
The attorneys noted that Navarro had already spent 15 days in jail at that point. They added that a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., had set a briefing schedule for his appeal, which won't be completed until mid-July — after the completion of Navarro's sentence.
