Navarro's prison sentence on contempt-of-Congress charges accordingly remains in place. He is scheduled to report to a Miami federal prison by 2 p.m. on March 19, to serve a four-month prison sentence for refusing to comply with subpoenas in a U.S. House committee investigation into the Capitol riot.
Roberts pointed to a recent ruling from the D.C. federal appeals court, which found that while arguing for his release, Navarro had failed to address key questions about his attempted use of executive privilege and about why he refused to provide basic, required responses in the House investigation.
The chief justice found "no basis to disagree with the determination" of the D.C. court.
The original story follows below.
The Biden administration's solicitor general has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject former Donald Trump advisor Peter Navarro’s last-ditch attempt to avoid an impending prison sentence in Miami.
After a Washington, D.C., federal court rejected his appeal, Navarro filed an emergency Supreme Court application Friday in a final effort to suspend the criminal judgment against him for refusing to respond to Congressional subpoenas in the January 6 Capitol riot investigation. If successful, Navarro would be released from custody and remain free while he pursued further challenges to his four-month prison sentence.
In a court filing this afternoon, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in response that because of Navarro's "total noncompliance" in defying the subpoenas, he is guilty of the charges regardless of his argument that he's entitled to executive privilege.
"Even if executive privilege had been asserted here, and even if that privilege had not been overcome by the committee’s demonstrated need for the requested information, applicant still would not be entitled to reversal or a new trial on his executive privilege claims because that invocation of privilege could not excuse his total noncompliance with the subpoena’s request for testimony and records," Prelogar wrote.
Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro is set to report to Miami's Federal Correctional Institution on March 19.
Photo by Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Justice Department claims in its response that Navarro "cannot make the demanding showing required to obtain that extraordinary relief."
Navarro, an economist and former Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in Trump's White House, was deeply involved in Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. On the heels of the election, he authored "The Navarro Report," a 30-page document that laid out Trump's case for widespread voter fraud. Many of the arguments raised in the document were ultimately rejected in federal court by judges appointed by Trump himself.
In September 2023, a jury convicted Navarro on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and provide requested documents in a House Select Committee probe of the January 6, 2021, riot and attack on the Capitol.
In January, he was sentenced to four months in prison.
"You are not a victim," U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta told Navarro at his sentencing. "You are not the object of a political prosecution — you aren’t. You have received every process you are due."
The federal trial court had rejected Navarro's claim that he received clearance to invoke executive privilege directly from Trump during a brief phone conversation.
"That did not happen here," an appellate court subsequently ruled on March 14, finding that Navarro produced insufficient evidence to show Trump gave him a formal instruction to use executive privilege.
Navarro's application for release pending appeal, along with the solicitor general's response, are now under consideration by the high court.
In the meantime, the former Trump advisor is set to report to Miami's Federal Correctional Institution by 2 p.m. on March 19.
