The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied Peter Navarro's request for a full court rehearing of his contempt of Congress case, clearing the path to the Supreme Court.
Friday's order stated that no judge requested a vote on Navarro's petition for rehearing en banc—a review by the entire court. Last month, a three-judge panel had unanimously upheld his two felony convictions, finding he invoked executive privilege without explicit direction from President Donald Trump and did not establish that Trump instructed him to withhold testimony or records.
Navarro's attorney, Abhishek Kambli, said the D.C. Circuit's denial "clears the runway" for a Supreme Court appeal. Navarro's legal challenge centers on the interpretation of "willfully" in the federal contempt statute, which criminalizes a witness's intentional failure to comply with a congressional subpoena.
Navarro's team argues the government must prove he knew his conduct was unlawful or acted with malicious intent, not merely that he intentionally failed to appear before the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee. Kambli cited a 1961 D.C. Circuit decision, Licavoli v. United States, as setting too low a legal standard by deeming intentional noncompliance sufficient for conviction. He contends subsequent Supreme Court rulings have generally required that willful criminal conduct involve a bad or unlawful purpose.
Kambli also argued Navarro should have been permitted to tell jurors he acted on a good-faith belief that executive privilege excused his noncompliance—a defendant's right to present a defense.
"The issue is bigger than Dr. Navarro," Kambli said. He framed the question as whether any White House adviser, regardless of party affiliation, can face prosecution and imprisonment for acting on a good-faith belief in executive privilege while being barred from presenting that belief to a jury.
Navarro was convicted in 2023 and served a four-month federal prison sentence in 2024.
The case follows a separate contempt matter involving former Trump administration official Steve Bannon. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols recently rejected the Justice Department's request to dismiss Bannon's case. The Supreme Court had vacated Bannon's conviction in April.
