D.C. Circuit Rejects Navarro Motion for Release Pending Appeal

The D.C. Circuit today rejected Peter Navarro's motion for release from prison pending his appeal.

Navarro, White House trade advisor to former President Trump, was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. He was sentenced to four months imprisonment. The district court rejected Navarro's claim that he acted under executive privilege. But he appealed, and moved the D.C. Circuit to release him from his prison sentence pending his appeal.

The D.C. Circuit flatly rejected Navarro's motion. Among other things, the court said that Navarro's motion doesn't present a "substantial question of fact regarding the district court's finding that executive privilege was not invoked in this matter by former President Trump or the sitting President, and he therefore forfeited any such argument." Moreover, the court wrote that in any event there's no "close question," because the President didn't actually invoke the privilege. Next, the court asserted that even if executive privilege were invoked, Navarro "forfeited any challenge to the district court's alternative conclusion that dismissal of the indictment still would not be required because executive privilege is a qualified privilege that would be overcome by the imperative need for evidence." And the court noted that even if executive privilege applied, "it would not excuse his complete noncompliance with the subpoena." That's because "[a] properly asserted claim of executive privilege would not have relieved him of the obligation to produce unprivileged documents and appear for his deposition to testify on unprivileged matters."

Assuming any appeal to the Supreme Court doesn't happen or is similarly flatly rejected, Navarro will have to report to federal prison by Tuesday.