MIAMI – Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s former White House trade adviser, reported to a Florida prison on March 19 to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

Navarro, 74, is the highest-ranking former member of the Trump administration to spend time behind bars for actions stemming from the former Republican president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Navarro was found guilty of two counts of contempt in September 2023 for refusing to comply with a subpoena to testify before the congressional panel that investigated the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.

The Harvard-educated economist had asked the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free while appealing his conviction, but Chief Justice John Roberts rejected his last-ditch request on March 18.

Navarro, the architect of the “Green Bay Sweep”, a plot to block Congress from certifying the 2020 election results, will serve his sentence at a minimum security federal prison in Miami.

He spoke to reporters in a carpark before turning himself in.

“I am the first senior White House adviser in the history of our republic that has ever been charged with this alleged crime,” Navarro said. “When I walk in that prison today, the justice system such as it is will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege.”

He claimed to be a victim of “partisan weaponisation of our justice system”.

“Every person who has taken me on this road to that prison is a friggin’ Democrat and a Trump hater,” Navarro said, adding that he will “walk proudly in there and do my time”.

“I will gather strength from this: Donald John Trump is the nominee for the Republican presidential campaign,” he added.

Bannon also convicted of contempt

Navarro refused to appear for a deposition before the House of Representatives committee that investigated the 2021 attack on Congress and declined to supply documents to the panel.

He was convicted of contempt by a federal jury in Washington after a two-day trial.

He is the second close Trump ally to be convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House committee.

Steve Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was also found guilty of contempt of Congress.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison in January but remains free pending an appeal.

Trump was scheduled to go on trial in Washington on March 4 on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

His trial has been put on hold, however, until the Supreme Court hears Trump’s claim that as a former president he is immune from criminal prosecution.

The court has scheduled arguments in the immunity case for April 25.

Trump, 77, was impeached for a second time by the House after the Capitol riot – he was charged with inciting an insurrection – but was acquitted by the Senate. AFP