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White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who was imprisoned for months for defying congressional demands after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, lost an appeal on July 21 to overturn his conviction.
Navarro was subpoenaed in 2022 by a House committee that investigated the violent attack. The committee sought documents and testimony after Navarro took credit in a book and in interviews for devising a plan to delay the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, in which then-former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump.
During the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Trump supporters attempted to disrupt proceedings in which then-Vice President Mike Pence was set to play a ceremonial role in certifying the 2020 election results. The supporters succeeding in delaying the certification, but not in stopping it.
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After Navarro failed to comply with the subpoena, he was indicted and later convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress, one for failing to produce documents and a second for failing to testify. He completed a four-month prison sentence in 2024, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request for a delayed sentence while his appeal played out.
Trump announced he was appointing Navarro to a White House advisory role on trade and manufacturing in 2024, after winning that year's presidential election.
In his appeal, Navarro argued that he was protected from the subpoenas by executive privilege, so his conviction was improper. However, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit unanimously upheld a lower court's determination that Navarro hadn't properly invoked executive privilege because that protection must be authorized by a U.S. president.
"Dr. Navarro first asserted executive privilege unilaterally without consulting with or receiving direction from President Trump," wrote Judge Patricia A. Millett on behalf of the panel, which also included Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and J. Michelle Childs. Millett and Pillard were appointed by then-President Barack Obama, while Childs was appointed by Biden.
Navarro's lawyer, Abhishek Kambli, said in a statement that the decision "was not surprising" and Navarro knew "it would be one step in a battle to correct decades of incorrect" precedent from the DC federal appeals court.
"He intends to move swiftly with his appeal because his case affects every senior presidential advisor, regardless of political party, who believes in good faith they cannot comply with a Congressional subpoena based on executive privilege," Kambli added.
Navarro argued in his case that Trump eventually directed him to assert executive privilege, during a brief phone call before the subpoena's deadlines. But the panel ruled that Navarro's testimony about that phone call, without further evidence, wasn't enough to overrule the trial court judge, who heard Navarro's testimony directly.
"Dr. Navarro’s empty record gives this court no basis to second-guess the district court’s decision to assign little weight to his self-serving, 'conclusory' and 'nondescript' live testimony,'" Millett wrote.
This story has been updated with additional information.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump trade adviser loses criminal appeal tied to Jan. 6 Capitol riot
