Trump Ally Peter Navarro Reports To Prison After Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Denies His Appeal: ‘I’m Pissed’

On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump ally and former White House aide Peter Navarro reported to prison in Miami to serve a four-month prison sentence.

The move came just hours after Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts denied his appeal of the sentence.

Navarro is the first senior aide to Trump to serve time in association with the plot to overturn the 2020 election.

“I’m pissed. That’s what I’m feeling right now,” Navarro told reporters before entering prison. “But I’m also afraid of only one thing: I’m afraid for this country because this, what they’re doing, should have a chilling effect on every American regardless of their party. They come for me, they can come for you.”

In September 2023, a jury found Navarro guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress.

Four months later, the Justice Department sought a sentence of six months in prison for him after he had been convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 committee. 

In a 20-page sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi said that prosecutors sought to punish Trump’s former aide for his bad-faith strategy. 

Navarro complained that the case’s legal costs left him bankrupt.

The prosecution asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to deliver a sentence of six months in addition to a fine of $600,000. Navarro’s counsel asked to have the sentence not go on any longer than six months with a fine of $100,000.

Navarro argued that he did not need to cooperate due to Trump’s executive privilege rights, even though he never confirmed that the former president asserted the privilege in his case.

Mehta rejected many arguments put forth by the former aide and underscored that his claims of testimonial immunity, executive privilege and other defenses had no merit. While he asserted political bias in the case, the judge ruled that his claims were unfounded and had no substance.

Congressional investigators looked into Navarro’s attempts to delay the certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

During the trial and sentencing, prosecutors accused Navarro of behaving as if “he was above the law” when he did not abide by the committee’s order and had “thumbed his nose” towards their work.

Chief Justice Roberts ruled that the former aide must start serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress while he seeks an appeal.

“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,” Roberts wrote in his decision.

“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 added. “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.”