Donald Trump's former adviser becomes first ex-White House official in US to serve prison term

Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who worked for former president Donald Trump, went to prison in Miami for four months because he didn't follow a subpoena from Congress.

It is the first time in the history of the United States that a former White House official has been imprisoned. Navarro will serve four months in prison as did not comply with the subpoena from the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.

“I am pissed – that’s what I am feeling right now," he said before turning himself to the prison authorities. Speaking for at least 30 minutes at a gas station, he criticised the case, terming it an “unprecedented assault on the constitutional separation of powers.”

He also said the same legal tactics would be used against Trump as were used against him. "When I walk in that prison today, the justice system such as it is will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege," he told reporters.

Peter Navarro's surrender came one day after Chief Justice John Roberts denied his last-minute request to remain free during his appeal for contempt of Congress. He was sentenced to prison in January but he persisted in asserting his innocence. He called his sentence as the "partisan weaponization of our judicial system."

Navarro said he intended to challenge his conviction up to the Supreme Court, alleging political bias against him. His legal team argued that his prosecution violated the separation of powers doctrine and sought emergency relief to postpone his prison term.

“It’s historic, and will be to future White House aides who get subpoenaed by Congress,” Stanley Brand, a former House general counsel who now represents Navarro as one of his defense lawyers, said on Monday.

Navarro's imprisonment marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battles between Trump associates and Congress.