Former President Trump said he would “absolutely” rehire his former White House adviser Peter Navarro if reelected in November, despite Navarro currently being in prison.
Navarro is two months into his four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I would absolutely have Peter back. This outrageous behavior by the Democrats should not have happened,” Trump said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Navarro, 74, reported to a federal prison in Miami in mid-March. He has said he does not want a pardon from Trump if he is reelected.
Navarro is hoping the Supreme Court will set him free while he challenges his conviction. The nation’s highest court has now denied his request twice, but Navarro maintains that the justices should take up his case.
“I will not give the Supreme Court any excuse to duck what is otherwise a landmark constitutional case regarding the separation of power and executive privilege,” Navarro wrote from prison in an email to the Journal.
The former Trump aide was convicted last year of two counts of contempt of Congress. One count was for failing to produce documents related to the attack on the Capitol, and the second was for skipping his deposition before the select House committee that was investigating.
Navarro said he has “no regrets” because he “didn’t choose this fight, this fight chose me.”
He is set to be released from prison July 17, two days after his 75th birthday.
On the day of his release, Navarro plans to fly to Milwaukee for a book signing for his book “The New MAGA Deal: The Unofficial Deplorables Guide to Donald Trump’s 2024 Policy Platform,” which is set to be released around the GOP convention and is an unofficial guide to Trump’s potential second term policies, the Journal reported.
Trump is currently on trial on charges related to allegations he attempted to hide a hush money payment to a porn star paramour meant to help his election prospects in 2016.
He also faces three other criminal cases, including two over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but the trials in those cases may not begin before November.