Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro to begin four-month jail sentence for contempt of Congress

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Nearly four years after he tried to help former president Donald Trump unlawfully remain in office after losing the 2020 election, ex-White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Navarro had asked the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free while he appeals decisions by US District Judge Amit Mehta and a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, both of whom had previously rejected Navarro’s blanket assertions of executive privilege under the former president in his defence against testifying to the committee. 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.