D.C. District Judge Amit P. Mehta on Thursday declined the request by former Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro to avoid prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction that came as a result of his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 Committee in the U.S. House.
Mehta (pictured above, right) ruled on Thursday that Navarro’s claim that his conviction could be reversed on appeal was insufficient to stay his sentence, according to Breitbart News, which reported the Obama appointee also rejected the legal underpinnings of Navarro’s case.
“After over a year of litigation, Defendant still has not offered what he thinks is required for a proper invocation of executive privilege,” Mehta reportedly wrote in his ruling, referencing the arguments Navarro raised in his defense.
Mehta sentenced Navarro (pictured above, left) to four months in federal prison in January for refusing to comply with the committee.
The denial is similar to Mehta’s recent refusal to request a stay of the sentence he issued to Stewart Parks, the Tennessee entrepreneur and former congressional candidate now serving an eight-month sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.
In response to Parks’ request to maintain his freedom while he appeals his conviction, Mehta likewise dismissed the foundation of Parks’ case, namely that he was shepherded into the building by police officers and had reason to believe the public was allowed into the U.S. Capitol on that day.
Mehta also accused Parks of lying in court. However, the apparent evidence of Parks’ lies remains sealed in a sentencing document only viewable by Mehta and attorneys associated with the case.
The judge also once forced a January 6 defendant who pleaded guilty to explain why his conviction should not be vacated, paving the way for a second trial after the defendant publicly professed his innocence despite admitting guilt in Mehta’s court.
Parks previously claimed Mehta “colluded” with prosecutors during his trial, and a CBS News journalist relayed Mehta’s apparent condemnation of Parks’ defense on social media last year.
CBS News journalist Scott MacFarlane said in a November 2023 Hangout on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “[f]or anybody who is angry or frustrated” by the defense strategies employed by some January 6 defendants, “your voice was channeled today by D.C. Federal Judge Amit Mehta. Of all the hearings I’ve covered and all the January 6th cases I’ve covered, I have rarely, if ever, heard a judge more forceful and frank in his denunciations of what a defendant had argued and what a defendant had said.”
MacFarlane reported that Mehta “chastised” and “dressed down” Parks for arguing his innocence in court, then later remarked, “‘I don’t know if you take me for a fool,’ and then said, “You cannot be serious,’ and said, ‘It’s charitable to say your testimony is not credible, if not a complete fabrication.’”
Before entering FCI Memphis, which has an established smuggling issue with media reports dating back more than a decade, Parks suggested Mehta and other “judicial elites” in Washington, D.C. “want to stomp me down” during an appearance on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.
After alluding to the prosecution’s references to his appearances with Leahy, who is the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, Parks said, “This is stuff you hear in other countries, not the United States.”
“It’s like they don’t want other defendants to feel emboldened or encouraged by it,” Parks said.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
