Supreme Court will not hear Peter Navarro’s challenge over personal emails, presidential records

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected former Trump adviser Peter Navarro’s request to take up his challenge to the feds’ attempt to go after records that were kept in his personal email.

Mr. Navarro, who served as economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump in his previous administration, challenged the feds’ use of the Presidential Records Act in attempting to gather documentation from his personal emails and messages.

He had argued in his filing that the National Archives and Records Administration does not have the authority to invade the privacy of a former employee of the president.

“While NARA has the authority over Presidential records to maintain them, preserve them, and eventually make them available for the public, the [Presidential Records Act] explicitly does not confer in NARA the authority to invade a former employee’s privacy to force the compelled production of Presidential records,” he argued in his petition. “Dr. Navarro appears to be the only former covered employee that NARA has sued.”

The feds claim that Mr. Navarro used a personal email account to correspond about the coronavirus pandemic. According to the feds’ filing, those personal messages should have copied a government email to maintain the documentation.

It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of reviewing the challenge for oral arguments to have been granted. The high court denied Mr. Navarro’s request without comment.

The legal battle remains pending in federal district court.

Mr. Navarro, former director of the White House National Trade Council, served four months in prison earlier this year for defying a congressional subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

He will also serve in Mr. Trump’s new administration.