Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro released from prison, set to speak at RNC
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on July 17, 2024
(MILWAUKEE, W.I.) — Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was released from federal prison Wednesday morning after completing his sentence on contempt of Congress charges.
Navarro was convicted in September of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He served four months in a low security facility in Miami.
Navarro was scheduled to speak Wednesday night at the Republic National Convention in Milwaukee, and on Wednesday morning was on his way from Miami to Milwaukee, according to sources.
In testimony during Navarro’s trial, former Jan. 6 committee staff director David Buckley said the House panel had been seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, “In Trump Time.”
Navarro unsuccessfully argued that former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege over his testimony and document production.
During his sentence, Navarro worked in the prison library and lived in the “elder dorm,” Navarro’s prison consultant, Sam Mangel, told ABC News.
Navarro experienced no issues with other inmates or staff, and was “well respected,” Mangel said.
The prison consultant told ABC News that Navarro got through his sentence with “surprising grace and fortitude.”
“At four o’clock in the afternoon and 10 o’clock at night, you have to stand by your bed and be counted,” said Mangel. “Everybody wears the same color clothes, eats the same food and sleeps in the same bunk.”
“It’s a very degrading, humiliating experience for anyone,” Mangel said. “I’m quite sure he’s happy it’s over and he’s now able to move on with his life.”
Navarro, who under Trump was the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was the first former Trump adviser to report to prison for actions related to the Jan. 6 attack. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon , who was also convicted of contempt of Congress, began his four-month prison term earlier this month.
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