MIAMI — Former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress last year, is set to surrender Tuesday at a federal Bureau of Prisons facility in Miami to begin serving his four-month sentence.
Before turning himself in, Navarro held a press conference in a strip-mall parking lot down the street from the facility. Near a Papa John’s, Navarro gave an extended speech airing his grievances against the government and his prosecution, painting himself as a victim of political persecution.
“I will walk proudly in there to do my time,” Navarro said. “I will gather strength from this: Donald John Trump is the nominee.”
Navarro, who was closely involved in Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss in the lead-up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating Jan. 6. He had been directed to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Asked whether he had spoken to Trump ahead of his incarceration, Navarro claimed “executive privilege” on his conversations with Trump, who is not currently the president of the United States.
“I’m gonna claim executive privilege on the Donald Trump conversations,” Navarro told reporters, referring to conversations he had with Trump, who stopped being the head of the executive branch more than three years ago, on Jan. 20, 2021.
His surrender comes hours after the Supreme Court rejected his 11th-hour request for a reprieve. Last week, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that Navarro had “not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely to result in reversal, a new trial, a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment or a reduced sentence of imprisonment that is less than the amount of time already served plus the expected duration of the appeal process.”
The House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Navarro in February 2022, but he refused to provide either documents or testimony, making an expansive claim of executive privilege. But as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts noted, the federal appeals court ruled that Navarro couldn’t just ignore Congress completely and was “still obligated to appear before Congress and answer questions seeking information outside the scope of the asserted privilege.”
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said at Navarro’s sentencing in January that he was “not a victim,” despite his claims.
“You are not the object of a political prosecution — you aren’t,” Mehta said. “You have received every process you are due.”
Kakouris-Solarana reported from Miami. Reilly reported from Washington.
