Peter Navarro, the former Trump advisor, reported to prison on Tuesday.
The Associated Press reports:
Former White House adviser Peter Navarro reported to prison Tuesday for a contempt of Congress conviction, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to be locked up for a crime related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
The outlet, here, is stretching things somewhat when it says that Navarro's prison sentence is the result of "a crime related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack."
In actuality, Navarro is going to prison for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena from the highly partisan House Jan. 6 subcommittee - the one that ostensibly investigated the Capitol protest of Jan. 6, 2021.
The committee, at one point, subpoenaed Navarro for documents and for a deposition, but Navarro refused to comply, claiming that the information was protected by executive privilege.
Navarro was subsequently indicted and convicted of contempt of Congress. As a result, he was ordered to pay a $9,500 fine and to spend four months in prison, a prison sentence that began on Tuesday.
Navarro is attempting to get the conviction overturned on appeal. In the meantime, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court if he could stay out of prison while the appeal proceeds. But, the Supreme Court, on Monday, refused to grant this request.
Just before reporting to prison, on Tuesday, Navarro held a press conference in which he claimed that he is the victim of "the partisan weaponization of our justice system."
"When I walk into that prison today, the justice system, such as it is, will have done a crippling blow to the Constitution's separation of powers and executive privilege," he said.
Navarro continued, "The second and related story has to do with the emergence of 'lawfare' and the partisan weaponization of our justice system, which we have seen come to this country with a vengeance since the coming of Donald John Trump as president."
He went on to claim that he is the "first senior White House adviser in the history of our republic that has ever been charged with this alleged crime."
"They can put me in prison; they can put you in prison. Make no mistake about that, and make no mistake about this: They are coming after Donald Trump with the same tactics, tools and strategies they used to put me over there today," Navarro said.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in on Navarro's prison sentence on Tuesday, calling it "a disgrace." Trump said, "Peter was treated very unfairly," and he called Navarro "a great patriot."
Trump was also asked whether, if elected president later this year, he would pardon Navarro, but Trump chose not to answer the question.
