by “These two men have refused to comply with the subpoenas in any way,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the committee, told the House Rules Committee on Monday.
He was intimately involved with Trump’s social media, often posting messages to Trump supporters on behalf of the then president. The committee believes that Scavino is aware of the meetings and details of events leading up to and on January 6, 2021, including strategy sessions that were directly related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. .
The committee cited news reports that discuss Scavino stalking the website “TheDonald.win,” which their report describes as an “online forum frequented by individuals who openly advocated and planned violence in the weeks leading up to January 6.” .
Scavino has always disputed his need to testify, according to a March 25 letter from his attorney Stanley Brand to the White House, which Brand provided to CNN on Sunday.
Scavino, however, argued that the law is not yet settled on whether the current president can waive privilege over all testimony, including Scavino’s conversations with Trump, particularly whether Trump can claim privilege. secrecy itself.
The committee accused Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, of making no effort to comply with his request for a subpoena, saying Navarro made it clear he was unable to cooperate because Trump had asserted executive privilege in the matter.
The committee objected to Navarro’s use of executive privilege, citing for example that many of the topics he wanted to discuss with him he had already written about in detail in his book.
Navarro has been very public about his attempts to work with the Trump campaign to overturn the 2020 election. In his book, he details a plan called “Green Bay Sweep”, which involved convincing the heads of state of several swing states to question election results with the aim of delaying and possibly preventing certification.
“My position remains that it is not my executive privilege to waive and the Committee should negotiate this matter with President Trump,” Navarro said in a statement. “If he waives the privilege, I will be happy to obey; but I see no effort on the part of the Committee to clarify this matter with President Trump, which is bad faith and bad law.”
GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who serves as the committee’s vice chair, said Tuesday, “There’s no legal standard that you can just say, ‘I’m not coming because someone told me. said not to, “even if that person is the former president of the United States.”
If both remands are rejected by the House, they will be sent to the Justice Department, which will decide whether there is enough evidence to prosecute. The committee advanced three previous criminal referrals.
