Former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said he has no regrets about being jailed for a contempt of Congress conviction.
Navarro, 74, is in a Miami prison, which he entered in March after Chief Justice John Roberts denied an emergency request to remain free while the conviction was challenged at the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch last month then denied Navarro's second request to avoid further prison time.
Navarro now is two months into a four-month sentence for refusing to cooperate with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan select committee — made up of seven Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans — that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
"I have no regrets," Navarro told The Wall Street Journal via email. "I didn't choose this fight, this fight chose me."
Navarro told the outlet he is not interested in a pardon should "the boss," former President Donald Trump, return to the White House.
"I will not give the Supreme Court any excuse to duck what is otherwise a landmark constitutional case regarding the separation of powers and executive privilege," wrote Navarro, the first White House official in history to be imprisoned for contempt.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told the Journal he "would absolutely have Peter back" in a second administration.
"This outrageous behavior by the Democrats should not have happened," the former president said in a statement
Navarro told the Journal that accountability is needed for those who have been investigating and prosecuting Trump.
"[People] helping to orchestrate this mockery of our justice system should keep their emails, phone messages, and other correspondence when the Trump FBI and DOJ come a-calling," he wrote.
Navarro is in the Federal Correctional Institution Miami, which is for low-security male offenders. He's slated to be released from prison July 17, two days after his 75th birthday.
He communicated via email because the Journal was denied a request for an in-person interview, as was Rep. Matt Gaetz, R.-Fla..
Gaetz, who hosts a podcast, said Bureau of Prisons director Colette Peters told him Navarro is "too notorious."
"He's like an elderly college professor," Gaetz said of Navarro.
CNN reported that inmates at the Miami prison could hear the roar of lions from a nearby zoo.
"This is prison, plain and simple, no country for old men," Navarro wrote to the Journal. "Don't fall into that pastoral zoo bull***."
Among his complaints is the food.
"Protein MIA. Haven't seen a fresh orange or grapefruit in the heart of citrus country since I got here," he wrote.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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