Two ex-advisers to former President Donald Trump should be held in contempt of Congress because they are withholding information that a House committee considers “central” to its investigation of events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the committee asserts.
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino “may have had advance warning about the potential for violence,” according to a report released Sunday by the investigating committee.
The panel is set to meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday to vote on recommending that the House of Representatives holds Scavino and Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro in contempt. If a House majority approves, criminal referrals would likely be sent to the Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue prosecution.
In the document posted on the committee’s website, the committee asserts there is “no merit” to the executive privilege assertions by the duo as a defense for their non-cooperation and non-compliance to committee subpoenas seeking testimony and documents.
The Biden administration last month rejected assertions by Navarro and another subpoenaed witness, Michael Flynn, Trump’s one-time national security adviser, that they should be shielded from testifying to the committee.
A lawyer for Scavino, Stan Brand, on Sunday provided to Bloomberg a letter he sent Friday to Jonathan C. Su, deputy counsel to the president, challenging that action. That letter was copied to the Jan. 6 committee chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.
“We respectfully request you inform Mr. Scavino and the Select Committee of any legal authority empowering President Biden to make a final decision as to the assertion of executive privilege with respect to the Congressional testimony of a former President’s close aides,” Brand wrote in that letter.
Brand declined to comment specifically on the claim that Scavino had advanced knowledge of the Jan. 6 violence.
In a statement Sunday night, Navarro called it “disingenuous for the Committee to assert Donald Trump has not invoked Executive Privilege in my case when it acknowledges in the same document President Trump has invoked it for Dan Scavino.”
“My position remains this is not my Executive Privilege to waive and the Committee should negotiate this matter with President Trump,” Navarro said. “If he waives the privilege, I will be happy to comply; but I see no effort by the Committee to clarify this matter with President Trump, which is bad faith and bad law.”
Scavino and Navarro would be the third and fourth Trump allies to face a criminal referral stemming from their alleged refusal to cooperate or comply with a committee subpoena.
Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his onetime political strategist, Steve Bannon, both have been held in contempt of Congress. Bannon has since been indicted and is set to go on trial in July on two counts of contempt, which can each carry a penalty of as long as a year in jail plus a fine.
The committee is investigating the origins of the Jan. 6, 2021, siege at the Capitol by a mob of Trump’s supporters that interrupted a joint session of Congress to certify Electoral College votes and Joe Biden’s victory over Trump from the 2020 presidential election.
The report posted Sunday notes that Scavino was responsible for social media and communications strategy for Trump, “including with respect to the Trump Campaign’s post-election efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.”
It adds: “Mr. Scavino reportedly attended several meetings with the President in which challenges to the election were discussed.” In offering its claim that Scavino may have had advance warning of Jan. 6 violence, the committee report states, “Mr. Scavino also tracked social media on behalf of President Trump, and he did so at a time when sites reportedly frequented by Mr. Scavino suggested the possibility of violence on January 6th.”
The report notes that Navarro has even publicly discussed some of the information that the committee is seeking from him, including that he and Bannon worked on a plan to coordinate with lawmakers on a process to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.
“Mr. Navarro published "In Trump Time," a book in which he described this plan as the ‘Green Bay Sweep’ and stated that it was designed as the ‘last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of defeat,’” states the report. “In a later interview about his book, Mr. Navarro added that former President Trump was ‘on board with the strategy, as were 100 members of Congress.’”
The report notes that Navarro “also appeared on national television on February 10, 2022, discussing subjects that were the focus of the Select Committee’s subpoena to him.”
Navarro in a statement Thursday reiterated that the committee’s contempt action against him was “an unprecedented partisan assault on executive privilege.” He argued that since Trump has invoked that privilege, the issue must be settled at the Supreme Court.
The committee claimed in a court filing this month it had enough evidence to conclude Trump and some of his associates could potentially be charged criminally on obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the American public.
The panel, which has done most of its work behind closed doors, is planning to hold public hearings by May.
