Jailed Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro will leave prison Wednesday to address the Republican National Convention (RNC), according to The Associated Press.
Navarro, who was a leading trade adviser for then-President Donald Trump, will leave a federal prison in Miami and speak to the convention being held from Monday to Thursday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sources familiar with the RNC’s schedule told the AP on Friday. Navarro and his allies have criticized his conviction for defying a Jan. 6 Committee subpoena, calling it political imprisonment and a “death sentence.”
Navarro will be released on Wednesday, which will give him just enough time to board a flight to Milwaukee and address the RNC before the event concludes on Thursday. The time slot in which he is expected to speak is not yet known, according to the AP. The RNC didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“Lawfare is real. Lawfare is wrong … We’re not supposed to act like Communist China or a Banana Republic. But that’s the growing perception of our justice system,” Navarro previously told the Daily Caller. “I’m in prison not for any crime but rather as a matter of honor and duty for defending the constitutional separation of powers.”(RELATED: Trump Says He ‘Would Absolutely’ Rehire Peter Navarro)
The charges stemmed from his failure to comply with a Jan. 6 Committee subpoena, where he invoked executive privilege to decline to testify and turn over documents to the committee. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was also convicted after defying a subpoena related to the Jan. 6 investigation; he was sentenced to four months in prison, time which he is currently serving.
Peter Navarro, White House trade advisor to former US President Donald Trump, arrives to speak to the press at the Country Mall Plaza before reporting to the Federal Correctional Institution, in Miami, Florida, on March 19, 2024 (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
The Department of Justice (DOJ) had argued that Navarro should face more time, recommending six months in jail and paying a $200,000 fine as opposed to the four months and $9,500 fine of his final sentence. Prosecutors said Navarro “exacerbated” the “assault” on the rule of law by refusing to comply with the subpoena, saying his “defiance and contempt deserves severe punishment,” according to court filings.
Navarro was arrested by FBI agents in June 2022 at Ronald Reagan National Airport and charged in the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C.
Navarro told the Daily Caller that his time in prison has not been like the “Club Fed” that many are describing it to be.
“It’s a dangerous place health-wise. The low-protein, high-carb, no-fresh-vegetable diet exacerbates problems like diabetes, colon cancer, and heart disease. I’m fortunate I don’t take any medicines, because prescription drugs are in short supply at the daily “pill line,” and a lot of inmates needlessly suffer from symptoms that their prescription drugs would otherwise ameliorate. I’m among about 200 inmates in close dorm quarters — a new strain of COVID hit a few weeks ago and spread like wildfire,” Navarro said.
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