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UPDATE (March 18, 2024, 6:41 p.m. ET): The Supreme Court has denied Navarro’s final bid to stay out of prison.
Peter Navarro, a former Donald Trump adviser who is set to begin a four-month sentence next week for contempt of Congress, has asked the Supreme Court to help him avoid prison time as he appeals his conviction.
In an emergency request filed Friday, Navarro’s lawyers asked the court to keep him out of prison during the appeals process, arguing that he is not a flight risk or danger to public safety.
“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,” his lawyers said in the application. “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.”
A three-judge panel rejected a similar request from Navarro earlier this week, saying he had not sufficiently demonstrated why he should remain free while he challenges his conviction.
He is due to report to a Bureau of Prisons facility in Miami by 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The Supreme Court gave the Justice Department a Monday, 2 p.m. deadline to respond to Navarro’s filing.
Navarro, Trump’s former trade adviser, was one of the architects of the Jan. 6 plot to block Congress from certifying the 2020 election results, and he in fact wrote a book that detailed his and Steve Bannon’s plans.
Like other Trump aides and allies who participated in the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Navarro has paid dearly for it — quite literally.