Ex-Trump aide Navarro reports to prison
Peter Navarro, Donald Trump's former White House trade advisor, reported to a Florida prison on Tuesday 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 for refusing to comply with a subpoena to testify before the congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters. Navarro, a 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 Monday. 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 parking lot before turning himself in. "I am the first senior White House advisor 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. Navarro refused to appear for a deposition before the House of Representatives committee that investigated the January 6 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. Navarro is the second close Trump ally to be convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House committee. (AFP)