MIAMI — Former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress final yr, is ready to give up Tuesday at a federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Miami to start serving his four-month sentence.
Earlier than turning himself in, Navarro held a press convention in a strip-mall parking zone down the road from the ability. Close to a Papa John’s, Navarro gave an prolonged speech airing his grievances towards the federal government and his prosecution, portray himself as a sufferer of political persecution.
“I’ll stroll proudly in there to do my time,” Navarro stated. “I’ll collect power from this: Donald John Trump is the nominee.”
Navarro, who was intently concerned in Trump’s makes an attempt to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss within the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to adjust to a subpoena from the Home committee investigating Jan. 6. He had been directed to give up to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Requested whether or not he had spoken to Trump forward of his incarceration, Navarro claimed “govt privilege” on his conversations with Trump, who just isn’t presently the president of america.
“I’m gonna declare govt privilege on the Donald Trump conversations,” Navarro informed reporters, referring to conversations he had with Trump, who stopped being the top of the chief department greater than three years in the past, on Jan. 20, 2021.
His give up comes hours after the Supreme Courtroom rejected his Eleventh-hour request for a reprieve. Final week, a federal appeals courtroom in Washington, D.C., dominated that Navarro had “not proven that his enchantment presents substantial questions of regulation or truth more likely to end in reversal, a brand new trial, a sentence that doesn’t embody a time period of imprisonment or a decreased sentence of imprisonment that’s lower than the period of time already served plus the anticipated length of the enchantment course of.”
The Home Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Navarro in February 2022, however he refused to supply both paperwork or testimony, making an expansive declare of govt privilege. However as Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts famous, the federal appeals courtroom dominated that Navarro could not simply ignore Congress fully and was “nonetheless obligated to look earlier than Congress and reply questions in search of info outdoors the scope of the asserted privilege.”
U.S. District Decide Amit Mehta stated at Navarro’s sentencing in January that he was “not a sufferer,” regardless of his claims.
“You aren’t the thing of a political prosecution — you aren’t,” Mehta stated. “You could have acquired each course of you might be due.”
Kakouris-Solarana reported from Miami. Reilly reported from Washington.