NEW YORK: Former White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, who is currently serving a jail sentence for contempt of Congress, is set to address the Republican National Convention (RNC) next week, according to sources from the Associated Press.
Navarro is expected to be released from a Miami prison on Wednesday, July 17, as per the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online database. His release will allow him just enough time to fly to Milwaukee and speak at the convention before it concludes on Thursday. Navarro was convicted in September for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Including Navarro in the RNC program indicates that convention organizers are not avoiding figures charged in connection with the Capitol attack or those who have promoted false claims about the 2020 election. Navarro, who served as a trade advisor during Trump's presidency, was subpoenaed by the committee investigating the attack due to his promotion of baseless voter fraud claims.
Navarro began his four-month sentence in March and has described his conviction as a “partisan weaponization of the judicial system.” He argued that he couldn’t comply with the committee’s subpoena because former President Trump had invoked executive privilege. However, the court rejected this defense, ruling that Navarro failed to prove Trump had indeed invoked such privilege.
On the day he reported to prison, Navarro criticized the justice system, claiming it had undermined constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege. Trump has supported Navarro, calling him a “good man” and a “great patriot” who was treated unfairly.
Navarro had requested to remain free while appealing his conviction, but his appeal was denied by Washington’s federal appeals court, which found his appeal unlikely to succeed. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts also refused to intervene.
Navarro is the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges, following former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is also serving a four-month sentence. Trump himself was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money trial.
The January 6 House committee's investigation spanned 18 months, involving over 1,000 witness interviews, 10 hearings, and more than 1 million pages of documents. The final report concluded that Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the election results and failed to act to prevent the Capitol riot. Trump faces charges for his efforts to overturn the election in both Washington, D.C., and Georgia, but these cases are currently on hold.
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