Appeals court rejects Peter Navarro’s bid to stave off jail time

A federal appeals court on Thursday denied former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro’s bid to remain out of jail while he appeals his criminal conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.

A three-judge panel ruled Navarro had failed to present “substantial questions of law” that might result in his conviction being overturned.

Navarro has long argued that former President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege to prevent Navarro from testifying or providing documents to the Jan. 6 select committee. But the judge who presided over his trial, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, rejected that argument, noting that Navarro presented no evidence that Trump had done so. The appeals court agreed.

“[T]he argument presupposes that privilege has actually been invoked in this case in some manner by the President,” the judges wrote in a two-page order. “That did not happen here”

The panel included Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard and Robert Wilkins.

Unless Navarro seeks and wins Supreme Court intervention, he could be in prison by next week. He’s been ordered to report by March 19. Navarro would be the first adviser directly connected to Trump to face jail time for conduct related to efforts to subvert the 2020 election.

Even if Navarro had shown that Trump did invoke executive privilege, however, the appeals court panel concluded that it would not undermine Navarro’s conviction since his such a claim would be overcome by the Jan. 6 committee’s “imperative need for evidence.”

The panel also noted that even if executive privilege was a legitimate reason to ignore aspects of the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena for documents, it would still not excuse his decision to defy the entire set of the committee’s demands, which included seeking documents and testimony on unprivileged subjects.

The House held Navarro in contempt in April 2022 for refusing to appear for a deposition or provide documents to the panel. The Justice Department charged Navarro with two counts of contempt of Congress several weeks later. A jury convicted Navarro on both counts last September.

Navarro is the second former Trump adviser convicted on federal charges for defying the Jan. 6 committee. Steve Bannon was convicted by a jury after a 2022 trial — but the judge in his case, Carl Nichols, agreed to allow Bannon to remain free pending appeal.