Navarro, who previously worked as the Trump administration’s trade adviser and is set to rejoin the incoming president’s team, argued that the Presidential Records Act does not authorize the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to retrieve private emails from former officials. Lower courts had ruled against him, and the high court rejected his appeal without comment, as it often does when rejecting petitions.

“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,” Navarro argued in his petition, suggesting the NARA has never targeted a former covered federal employee like him before in a lawsuit.

The Justice Department contends that Navarro’s emails contained presidential records tied to the coronavirus pandemic that should have been preserved by copying an official government email account. The case remains active in federal district court.

Navarro’s legal challenges come as he prepares to return to government service in President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration.

Previously, Navarro served a four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena related to the investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. He maintains that executive privilege, invoked by Trump, prevented his compliance with the subpoena.

The case underscores ongoing debates over presidential records, executive privilege, and accountability for former officials. Meanwhile, Navarro has signaled plans to appeal both his email-related case and his contempt of Congress conviction, keeping his legal battles in the spotlight.