A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who was charged with contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
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Navarro served a four-month sentence in 2024 after a jury found him guilty of stonewalling a request for records and testimony from the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. He argued the subpoena requests were improper under the separation of powers and barred by executive privilege.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit federal appeals court disagreed, ruling Tuesday that the law “mandates compliance with congressional subpoenas” and that Trump never invoked executive privilege for Navarro, though he did for other advisers who received subpoenas related to Jan. 6.
“Dr. Navarro immediately and categorically asserted executive privilege without consulting anyone, whether counsel or the President to whom the privilege belongs,” the court said in a unanimous opinion. “And he did so before even seeing the subpoena and its cover letter that made clear the subpoena sought some information that Dr. Navarro concedes is not privileged because he had discussed it publicly.”
After serving throughout Trump’s first term as a trade and pandemic adviser — and writing several books about his experiences — Navarro returned to the White House for the second Trump administration. He was one of the architects behind the president’s sweeping tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court this year.
But it was Navarro’s writings that caught the interest of the Jan. 6 congressional committee. In his books, Navarro described an unsuccessful attempt by some Trump supporters to have then-Vice President Mike Pence overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election during a joint session of Congress held on Jan. 6.
The operation was called “the Green Bay Sweep.” Instead of certifying Joe Biden as the electoral college winner, Trump loyalists in Congress would contest ballots from six swing states that Biden had won, which would then throw the election to the House. The plan, which Pence refused to support, ultimately failed.
The February 2022 subpoena asked Navarro about his claim of working with another Trump adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, on that plan.
Writing for the appeals court, Judge Patricia A. Millett said Navarro had publicly revealed much of the material the House committee was seeking, “failed to produce any document establishing that President Trump had directed him to assert executive privilege and could not recall whether such a document existed.”
All three judges on the panel — Millett, J. Michelle Childs and Cornelia T.L. Pillard — were appointed by Democratic presidents.
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Navarro did not immediately comment Tuesday.
Navarro and Bannon, a Trump political strategist who left the White House in 2017, were the first former presidential aides charged with contempt of Congress since at least 2008, and the first people incarcerated for defying a congressional subpoena in more than half a century.
Unlike almost every other defendant convicted of Jan. 6 offenses, Navarro has not been pardoned by Trump. The trade adviser has said he declined to seek a pardon because he hoped to win his appeal and set a legal precedent strengthening executive privilege for future presidents and their top White House aides.
Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist, argued that if a former president was “unexpectedly suffering from disability or death,” his advisers should still be able to guard White House communications from prying eyes.
The appeals court rejected that argument, writing that “at a minimum, the privilege must be claimed by the President (current or former) or an official authorized by the President to claim it.” Biden, once in office, took the position that Navarro was not covered by executive privilege.
Trump has pardoned more than 1,500 rioters who were convicted of Jan. 6 offenses. The Justice Department also has filed motions in court to wipe out the convictions of the top members of two extremist groups — the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers — who led the mob into the U.S. Capitol.
The Justice Department also has requested that Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress convictions be dismissed, and the Supreme Court gave the green light for that move this year.
Navarro, however, continued to pursue his appeal. Unlike in Bannon’s case, the Justice Department has not filed court papers seeking to wipe out Navarro’s convictions.
That posture led to an unusual oral argument in December before the three-judge panel hearing Navarro’s appeal. The only lawyer who addressed the court was Navarro’s attorney, Stanley Brand. No prosecutors were present.
“Normally, I would offer you rebuttal, but there’s nothing to rebut,” Millett said at the end of the hearing.
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“It’s been a very strange journey,” Brand responded.
