Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro is scheduled to be released from prison Wednesday and to take the stage soon after at the Republican National Convention, according to former President Donald Trump's campaign.
Navarro has been in federal prison in Miami for four months after his conviction for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol, reports The Hill.
His attorney did not respond to questions about the timing of his release and when he'll arrive at the convention in Milwaukee. The convention is scheduled to end Thursday night, the day after Navarro is released.
The former Trump official was imprisoned after being convicted last year of two counts of contempt, one for skipping his deposition before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 incidents and the other for failing to produce documents related to the investigation.
Navarro had sought to remain out of prison while he was appealing his convictions but was sent to prison after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rejected his bid to remain out the day before he was to start his prison term.
Roberts, who got the bid because he handles emergency cases from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, said he denied Navarro's request because he had forfeited arguments challenging the lower court's conclusion that Trump had not invoked executive privilege.
Navarro's appeal will likely depend on whether a decision is reached that Trump granted him executive privilege. At trial, the district judge barred Navarro from using executive privilege in his defense after determining he didn't prove Trump had invoked it.
Navarro claimed he has an "honest belief" that Trump had granted him executive privilege, and his defense attorneys said the judge's decision "hamstrung" their case.
"The purpose of this appeal is not to avoid the punishment Dr. Navarro will have endured, nor does this appeal seek reprieve for the punishment he has already endured during this period — rather, its purpose is to decide an important question of federal law," Navarro's attorneys wrote in his July 11 appeal. "Specifically, this appeal presents a series of related questions concerning the role of executive privilege in the intersection of our separate but coequal branches of government."
Trump said in May he would "absolutely" give Navarro a job if he's reelected. Navarro, meanwhile, said he does not want a pardon from Trump or President Joe Biden.
Steve Bannon, another former Trump White House aide, began his prison sentence on July 1 for evading the House Jan. 6 committee.
He had initially been allowed to stay out of prison while appealing his conviction but was ordered to start his sentence after a federal appeals court affirmed the case.
Like with Navarro, the Supreme Court also rejected an emergency appeal from Bannon, who says he is a "political prisoner."
He is serving his time in a Connecticut federal prison and is scheduled to be released on Oct. 29, about a week before the November presidential election.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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