Peter Navarro Begins 4-Month Prison Sentence for Contempt of Congress

Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami on Tuesday, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to serve time over his role in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election.

Mr. Navarro, 74, who helped engineer Mr. Trump’s plans to stay in power after his electoral defeat in November 2020, was sentenced to four months in prison in January for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

At a hastily organized news conference shortly before he was set to check into the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, a low-security prison next to the Miami-Dade zoo, Mr. Navarro reprised familiar denunciations of the Justice Department and the Biden administration.

Speaking in the parking lot of a commercial plaza, flanked by a pizza store and a pawnshop, he cast blame on the federal trial judge in his case, as well as Mr. Biden and a long list of politicians he said were motivated by hostility toward Mr. Trump.

He added that the “tragedy” of his situation was that he was likely to complete his sentence as he continues to appeal his conviction.

“I’m afraid of only one thing,” he told reporters. “I’m afraid for my country, because this — what they are doing — will have a chilling effect on every American, regardless of their party.”