In order to avoid going to a federal prison next week to start serving a four-month sentence for his contempt of Congress conviction, former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is requesting permission from the Supreme Court.
Navarro urged the court to grant him a stay of freedom while he disputes the conviction in front of the federal appeals court in Washington, DC, in an emergency plea that was submitted on Friday afternoon. Navarro must report on March 19 to a federal prison located in Miami.
Navarro’s lawyers contended that it is appropriate to pause a lower court’s decision to deny his plea to remain free when the petitioner poses no risk of flight and is posing serious legal issues rather than just trying to buy time.
The lawyers stated, “Navarro is indisputably neither a flight risk nor a danger to public safety should he be release pending appeal.”
Navarro, on the other hand, has filed an appeal and “will raise a number of issues on appeal that he contends are likely to result in the reversal of his conviction, or a new trial,” they added.
Thus far, comparable appeals have been denied by two lower courts. Navarro’s request was unanimously denied by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday, stating that he had not provided enough evidence to support his right to continue living freely while his appeal of the conviction is being processed.
Navarro “has not shown that his appeal presents substantial questions of law or fact likely to result in reversal, a new trial, a sentence that does not include a term of imprisonment, or a reduced sentence of imprisonment,” the judges stated in the unsigned opinion.
The prosecution was asked by the Supreme Court to respond by Monday afternoon.
As the court considers his case, Navarro has been contending that US District Judge Amit P. Mehta erred in denying him the opportunity to raise an executive privilege argument during the trial and that the prospect that the appeals court may overturn that ruling should save him from prison.
Mehta’s decision is a sharp contrast to the way Steve Bannon’s conviction was handled. In addition, Bannon received a four-month term for defying a congressional subpoena in the probe. However, the presiding judge granted the Trump ally parole while his conviction was appealed by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
After being found guilty in September of two charges of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the House select committee looking into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Navarro was sentenced to four months in jail earlier this year.
