Freedom was on the line for a former Trump adviser as an emergency appeal was brought to the Supreme Court mere days before a federal prison deadline.
While former President Donald Trump remained a primary focus of leftist lawfare, his former trade adviser Peter Navarro was among those taking heat specifically in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021. Now, as a four-month prison sentence for a two-count conviction of contempt of Congress waited on the other side of the weekend, the former official’s fate rested with the high court.
Friday, Navarro’s attorneys from Brand Woodward Law, LP, submitted an emergency application for a stay of judgment with the U.S. Supreme Court after a three-judge panel had denied his effort to remain out of prison during the appeal of his conviction.
“For the first time in our nation’s history, a senior presidential advisor has been convicted of contempt of congress after asserting executive privilege over a congressional subpoena,” the filing stated. “Dr. Navarro has appealed and will raise a number of issues on appeal that he contends are likely to result in the reversal of his conviction, or a new trial.”
The emergency application further added, “Moreover, the district court precluded Dr. Navarro from presenting any evidence in his defense explaining that even though he did in fact default on the congressional subpoena, he felt duty-bound to assert executive…while simultaneously allowing the government to summarize its case to the jury as Dr. Navarro’s assertion of executive privilege unequivocally did not excuse him from complying with the subpoena and his failure to do so put him, ‘above the law.'”
Also of note, the adviser’s counsel asserted, “Dr. Navarro is indisputably neither a flight risk nor a danger to public safety should he be [released] pending appeal.”
While the filing contended the opposite, the panel of judges had argued Navarro had “not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely to result in reversal, a new trial, a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment or a reduced sentence of imprisonment that is less than the amount of time already served plus the expected duration of the appeal process.”
In September 2023, the former trade adviser was convicted after he refused to cooperate with the kangaroo court that was the Jan. 6 committee, defying a subpoena to appear before the committee and to turn over documents requested during their partisan probe.
Now, the Supreme Court had given President Joe Biden’s administration until 2 p.m. Monday to issue a response to Navarro’s appeal that a determination could be made ahead of the Tuesday deadline where he is expected to surrender himself to federal prison in Miami, Florida.
Adding to concerns over political persecution, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon has remained out of prison as he appealed convictions of contempt of Congress, but the judge in his trial, Carl Nichols, was a Trump appointee whereas Navarro’s presiding judge, Amit Mehta, had been appointed by then-President Barack Obama.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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