Michael Cohen says Peter Navarro has ‘no idea’ what being in prison will be like

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen said former Trump official Peter Navarro is in for a rude awakening as he serves four months in prison on a contempt of Congress conviction.

“When you’re on the inside, there are rules,” Mr. Cohen told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. “Whether you’re in a satellite camp, a lot like I was in, or you’re in maximum security, the rules are still the rules.”

“He doesn’t live by those rules. He’s never had to live by those rules,” he said. “This is an adjustment that he has no idea what he’s in store for.”

Mr. Cohen speaks from experience. He served a little over a year in prison and a year and a half under home confinement after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes.

Navarro, 74, reported Tuesday to a federal prison in Miami, making him the first of the Trump administration to face jail time for a crime related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

He was sentenced to four months after being found guilty of refusing to provide documents and cooperate with the House Jan. 6 select committee. He was subpoenaed by the committee with regard to claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“When I walk in that prison today, the justice system — such as it is — will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers and executive privilege,” Navarro told reporters Tuesday.

Navarro, who advised former President Donald Trump on trade issues, had requested to stay out of prison while he appealed his conviction.

The select committee subpoenaed Navarro in February 2022, but he said he wouldn’t comply because Mr. Trump cited executive privilege. Courts rejected that argument, saying Navarro couldn’t prove that Mr. Trump had actually invoked the privilege.

“I will walk proudly in there to do my time,” he said, adding that he would “gather strength from this: Donald John Trump is the [presumptive Republican] nominee.”