Judge Orders Former Trump Aide to Begin Prison Time

On Thursday, Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Peter Navarro, a former White House aide, could not remain free while appealing a conviction. Navarro’s four-month prison term was for ignoring a subpoena issued by the Jan 6 investigative committee.

Not good enough

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Mehta ruled that Navarro had not posed “a substantial question of law” that would warrant letting him remain free. That’s in contrast to Steve Bannon, who was also convicted for his refusal to cooperate with the Jan 6 Committee.

Where one succeeds

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Bannon argued that “he should have been able to stonewall Congress based on a lawyer’s advice or his belief that he was barred from sharing information with the House committee due to executive privilege,” the Washington Post explained. While Judge Carl Nichols rejected both claims, he admitted the former was debatable and should be considered by a higher court.

Another one fails

However, as Judge Mehta determined, Navarro apparently relied on a November 2020 statement by Trump arguing that Navarro didn’t have to cooperate with a different Congressional committee.

Shady character

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Navarro was convicted in September for refusing to talk to lawmakers about his plan to steal the 2020 election, called “Green Bay Sweep.” The Trump aide concocted the scheme with Bannon, and has written openly about how it would have worked.

Crushing democracy

The plan, according to Navarro, was to challenge the vote counts in six battleground states. Each challenge would force hours of debate, which “would add up to as much as 24 hours of nationally televised hearings,” Navarro explained.

Spreading propaganda

In the hearings, Republicans could then “short-circuit the crushing censorship of the anti-Trump media,” Navarro thought. The chaos, Navarro continued, would then force Mike Pence to “put the certification of the election on ice for at least another several weeks” while allegations of fraud were pursued.

No good

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While Navarro claimed that Trump and “more than 100” members of Congress were on board with the plan, Pence was not. Navarro blamed the vice president for ruining the plan, which he said had “secured [Pence’s] place in history as the Brutus most responsible for the final betrayal of President Trump.”

No success

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On Jan 6, 2021 — the same day as rioters stormed the Capitol building — USA Today posted a summary of Trump’s many challenges to the 2020 election. The former president and his allies filed 62 lawsuits attempting to overturn results, and 61 failed. The Supreme Court also sided against Trump twice.

Baseless claims

In December 2021, the Associated Press published the results of an investigation into “Every potential case of voter fraud in the six battleground states disputed” by Trump. The investigation found “fewer than 475” potential cases out of 25.5 million ballots.

One fair point

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Judge Mehta did admit that Navarro’s argument raised a question: “What does a President, current or former, have to do to properly assert executive privilege?” However, Mehta also determined that Navarro had totally failed to answer the question or even show that it was particularly close.

Widespread refusal

Even if the privilege protected Navarro from speaking to lawmakers about his conversations with Trump, it did not protect him from his total stonewalling of Congress, which included refusals to produce documents.