Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro will be jailed after Supreme Court rejects last-minute appeal

Peter Navarro, the former Trump White House trade adviser who later helped Donald Trump devise a plot to remain in office after losing the 2020 election, will report to a federal prison facility in Florida on Tuesday after the Supreme Court denied his last-ditch bid to stay his sentence pending appeal of his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.

In a brief opinion issued from his chambers, Chief Justice John Roberts — the justice responsible for appeals from Washington, DC federal courts — said Navarro had not established that he was entitled to remain free under provisions of the Bail Reform Act while he continued to appeal his conviction on the grounds that he should have been permitted to argue that he was following orders from the former president when he defied a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee.

“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,” he wrote.

The Chief Justice added that he saw “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”.

Navarro was charged with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for what federal prosecutors