Former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, who is serving time in jail for contempt of Congress charges, is scheduled to make an appearance at next week’s Republican National Convention shortly after his release. Anonymous sources familiar with the event’s schedule disclosed this information before it was officially announced. Navarro is anticipated to be released from a Miami prison on July 17 and aims to fly to Milwaukee in time for the convention’s conclusion on Thursday. His imprisonment stems from his refusal to cooperate with a congressional inquiry into the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol; however, his attorney did not provide an immediate response for comments.
Navarro’s inclusion in the convention’s program suggests a willingness on the part of the organizers to feature individuals facing charges linked to the Capitol attack and the falsehoods that instigated it. The event, expected to attract a substantial viewership, will feature prime-time programming over several days. Navarro, who previously served as a trade advisor in the Trump administration, propagated unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud in 2020 and was summoned by the investigative committee probing the Capitol incident.
In the lead-up to his four-month imprisonment that commenced in March, Navarro criticized his conviction as being a result of the “partisan weaponization of the judicial system.” Despite maintaining that he couldn’t comply with the committee’s requests due to executive privilege invoked by the former president, the court dismissed this defense after Navarro failed to demonstrate that Trump had indeed asserted executive privilege.
During his sentencing, Navarro expressed dismay over the perceived encroachment on the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege by the justice system. Noteworthy is the endorsement Trump has extended to Navarro, labeling him as a “good man” and a “great patriot” who was unfairly treated. Navarro’s plea to remain free while appealing his conviction was turned down by Washington’s appeals court, a decision subsequently supported by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Navarro is the second Trump associate to be convicted of contempt of Congress charges, following former advisor Steve Bannon. Furthermore, Trump himself was sentenced in May on 34 counts related to falsifying business records in a hush money trial. The House committee that investigated the events of January 6 concluded after 18 months of inquiry that Trump was engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn election results and neglected to intervene in preventing his supporters from storming the Capitol. Legal proceedings against Trump for election interference in Washington, D.C., and Georgia are currently paused.
