SerpApi.Org
A federal appeals court has upheld the criminal conviction of longtime Trump White House aide Peter Navarro for defying a subpoena from the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
A three-judge panel upheld the conviction, rejecting Navarro’s claim that President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege to prevent him from testifying to the committee. And even if he had, the select committee had demanded information about many topics that could not conceivably have been covered by executive privilege, the appeals court said..
In early 2022, the Jan. 6 committee wanted Navarro to testify about his contention that he helped spearhead a plan to delay the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
“Dr. Navarro claimed executive privilege before even seeing the subpoena and refused to turn over documents, appear for his deposition, or engage with the Select Committee’s efforts to accommodate his privilege claim,” wrote Judge Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, for the unanimous panel, which also include Judge Cornelia Pillard, also an Obama appointee, and Judge Michelle Childs, a Biden appointee.
Weeks after Navarro refused to testify, the select committee and the House voted to hold him in contempt, which was followed quickly by a criminal indictment from the Justice Department. Navarro was convicted by a jury in 2023 and served a four-month sentencein 2024. But Navarro has continued to pursue his appeal, claiming that it represents a watershed moment for the separation of powers.
“The decision today from the D.C. Circuit panel was not surprising and Peter Navarro knew that it would be one step in a battle to correct decades of incorrect DC Circuit precedent,” said Abhishek Kambli, a partner at Holtzman Vogel and former Justice Department attorney who recently took on Navarro’s case. “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."
Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon was similarly convicted for defying a Jan. 6 select committee subpoena and fought his case to the Supreme Court earlier this year, before the Justice Department — now led by Trump — agreed to drop the indictment and wipe Bannon’s slate clean. Navarro has insisted he wants to continue fighting his case, hoping to win a substantive victory.
However, every judge to consider the matter so far has said Navarro has failed to present evidence Trump ever invoked executive privilege. Navarro has pointed to a three-minute phone call the two had in February 2022, in which he claims Trump told him to assert executive privilege.
But Trump has never publicly backed up that contention — even in a belated and unsuccessful attempt to help Navarro stave off his trial — and Navarro did not provide any supporting evidence. The appeals court panel noted Tuesday that during a separate congressional investigation into the Trump administration’s Covid response, Trump publicly called on Navarro to assert executive privilege, a distinction they said underscored doubts about the Jan. 6 case.
Navarro and Bannon, who also served a four-month jail sentence in 2024, remain the only two members of Trump’s inner circle to face criminal consequences stemming from the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack and Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election.
