Peter Navarro inches closer to Supreme Court in his Jan. 6 subpoena contempt appeal
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s contempt of Congress case moved a step closer to the Supreme Court this week. After a three-judge appellate panel ruled against him last month, he asked the full appeals court to rehear his case.
The rehearing petition could serve as a precursor to Navarro asking the justices to take his case, should the full appeals court reject him. In his petition, he argues that the panel’s reliance on the appeals court’s own precedent “grievously misconstrues” the law and “flouts decades of Supreme Court precedent.”
Appeals courts abide by their own precedents unless the Supreme Court directs otherwise or the appeals court reverses itself, as Navarro urges the Washington, D.C., court to do here.
Navarro was prosecuted during the Biden administration for not complying with a House Jan. 6 committee subpoena. His lawyer said his client has “turned down” a pardon in order to “vindicate his case in court.”
The Trump adviser had moved to dismiss his indictment on the grounds that he said Trump had invoked executive privilege on his behalf. The trial judge found that didn’t happen and blocked Navarro from arguing to the jury that he mistakenly thought he didn’t have to respond to the subpoena.
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Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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