Elizabeth Franz/Reuters
Peter Navarro speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 24th.
CNN
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Peter Navarro, a former White House adviser to President Trump, hopes to spend the next few months working and sleeping in an air-conditioned dormitory for “elderly” male inmates at a prison adjacent to the zoo.
Navarro, 74, must report to prison on Tuesday after the Supreme Court denied his last-minute request for a reprieve on Monday afternoon.
He is expected to report to a minimum-security federal prison satellite camp in Miami, becoming the first former White House official to be jailed for contempt of Congress.
“You don't just hear the lions…you hear the lions roar every morning,” said Navarro Prison Consultant Sam Mangel.
“He's nervous,” Mangel told CNN about Navarro. “Regardless of the length of your sentence, everyone is stepping into the unknown.”
Mr. Mangel is part of a cottage industry in the legal world that aims to prepare wealthy inmates and their families for life behind bars. He said he spoke with Navarro on Monday.
Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison after a jury found him guilty of failing to respond to Congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony during the House investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Ta.
01:18 – Source: CNN
'You are not a victim': judge scolds Navarro during sentencing
Another Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, was also sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress in connection with the same investigation, but his prison report date is pending as he also appeals. has been done.
“This is historic, especially for future White House aides who receive subpoenas from Congress,” Stanley Brand, a former House general counsel who is now representing Navarro as one of his attorneys, said Monday. It will be a momentous event.”
If the Supreme Court does not intervene and decides to postpone his release date, Navarro is unlikely to serve his full four-month sentence under a law that allows federal prisoners to be released early. Mangel said he expects him to serve about 90 days.
Mangel said Navarro needs to take classes and get a job inside the prison. A prison consultant recommends trying out for a law library clerkship or orderly position so you can spend some time in the air conditioning in the coming months as Miami's weather warms.
Because of his age, Navarro also plans to request to be placed in a dormitory for elderly inmates, where about 80 men are housed in bunk beds.
“There's no privacy in dorms,” Mangel said. “It can be scary and intimidating. But he will be completely safe.”
Mangel said he has two additional clients already in the camp who plan to help Navarro “acclimate.” He is a doctor and political activist, but his name will not be disclosed.
Mr. Navarro heads to the Federal Correctional Facility in Miami, one of the oldest prisoner-of-war camps in the country, with fewer than 200 inmates housed in dilapidated infrastructure. This prison houses a large group of inmates from Puerto Rico, as it is the closest Bureau of Prisons facility to the territory.
Internally, Navarro will be able to spend at least eight hours a month on the phone and will have access to email. Mangel said he also has access to news on dozens of televisions in the prison, half of which are in Spanish and half in English.
In an order Monday afternoon, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected Mr. Navarro's attempt to stay out of prison to challenge his conviction in the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Roberts noted that a federal appeals court had concluded that Navarro had waived any challenge to the idea that he could avoid appearing before Congress even if he was entitled to executive privilege. did. “There is no basis for disagreeing with the finding that Mr. Navarro waived these claims,” Roberts said.
US Federal Bureau of Prisons
This photo from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons shows FCI Miami, a low-security federal correctional facility with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp.
Navarro's lawyers argue that lower courts deny requests for release if the applicant is not a flight risk and raises substantive legal issues rather than simply seeking a deferment. He argued that suspending the sentence was justified.
Rather, Navarro is appealing and “will raise a number of issues on appeal that will likely result in an overturning of the conviction or a new trial.”
Attorney General Elizabeth Preloger called Navarro's claims “baseless” and argued that his challenge was unlikely to overturn the conviction, urging the court to reject his emergency appeal. .
Preloger said in court that Navarro's “many claims fall into two main categories, neither of which is likely to result in a reversal or a new trial.” He said Navarro's main argument, that the federal judge's decision not to allow him to raise the presidential privilege argument at trial was wrong, ultimately changes the outcome of his criminal case. He said it was not.
“A successful claim of privilege does not excuse the applicant's failure to fully comply with the subpoena,” Preloger wrote. “(Mr. Navarro) has waived arguments to the contrary on all of these points, each of which constitutes an independent reason to reject his claims here.”
This article and headline have been updated with additional details.
CNN's Devan Cole and John Fritze contributed to this report.
