Peter Navarro: US supreme court denies Trump ally’s bid to avoid prison

The US supreme court on Monday denied a request by Donald Trump’s former aide Peter Navarro to avoid prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from a panel that investigated the 2021 Capitol attack.

Navarro, who served as trade adviser during Trump’s presidency, is set to become the first senior member of his administration to be imprisoned for actions related to the attempt to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Navarro is slated to arrive around 11.30am ET on Tuesday at a federal prison in Miami to begin serving a four-month prison sentence, according to his lawyers.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles certain emergency matters involving cases from Washington, acted for the supreme court in rejecting Navarro’s request.

A jury convicted Navarro last September of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for defying the Democratic-led House of Representatives committee’s subpoena.

Trump is the Republican candidate challenging Joe Biden in the 5 November US election.

On 6 January 2021, Trump supporters sought to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory over him, clashing with police and rampaging through the Capitol. The committee that Navarro spurned investigated that attack as well as Trump’s broader attempts to overturn his 2020 loss.

The US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit denied Navarro’s request to pause his sentence while he appeals, prompting his emergency request last week to the supreme court.

Roberts, in a brief order, said he saw “no basis to disagree” with the DC circuit’s determination that Navarro had forfeited various arguments seeking to avoid prison, “which is distinct from his pending appeal on the merits”.

Navarro has argued