EXCLUSIVE — White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday asked the full federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., to reconsider its decision upholding his contempt of Congress conviction, arguing a three-judge panel that ruled against him relied on outdated precedent that wrongly narrowed his ability to defend himself at trial.
Navarro’s attorney, Abhishek Kambli, filed a petition for rehearing en banc with the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after a three-judge panel dealt a blow to his long-running appeal last month. One of the central focuses of his new petition is the meaning of “willfully” in the federal contempt statute, which prosecutors under the Biden administration used to convict Navarro after he declined to comply with a subpoena from the long-defunct House Jan. 6 committee.
