Former Trump White House Aide Asks Supreme Court To Pause His Prison Sentence
Katelynn Richardson on March 15, 2024
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro asked the Supreme Court Friday to pause his prison sentence.
Navarro was ordered to report to a Miami prison by March 19 to begin his four month sentence for his conviction on contempt of Congress charges over defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena. Both the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta have denied his request to stay the sentence while he appeals the conviction.
Navarro’s attorneys told the Supreme Court in the emergency application Friday 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. “Dr. Navarro does not dispute that his failure to comply with the congressional subpoena at issue was deliberate. Rather, he contests that any such prosecution was consistent with the separation of powers doctrine.”
The DOJ indicted Navarro in June 2022 after he failed to produce documents requested by the Jan. 6 committee and declined to testify, citing executive privilege. Navarro was sentenced in January to four months in jail and a $9,500 fine.
The DOJ initially sought a six month sentence along with a $200,000 fine.
“[E]ven if executive privilege were available to appellant, it would not excuse his complete noncompliance with the subpoena,” the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. “Appellant makes no claim of absolute testimonial immunity, nor could he.”
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