2 years ago
President Joe Biden turned down an effort by Dan Scavino, the longtime social media manager for Donald Trump, to resist the Jan. 6 select committee by asserting executive privilege.
The disclosure came as part of a 34-page report released Sunday evening by congressional investigators as the Jan. 6 committee prepared to begin contempt proceedings against Scavino and Peter Navarro, another ally in the former president’s last-ditch effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
‘‘President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified,” the White House counsel’s office informed Scavino on March 15, according to the newly posted materials.
Biden’s decision is the latest in a long string of rejections for Trump advisers seeking to frustrate the select committee by citing executive privilege. The White House has issued similar statements pertaining to former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Trump aide Steve Bannon and others who have insisted their proximity to Trump in the closing weeks of his presidency made them immune from testimony.
The decision to seek criminal charges against Scavino and Navarro is an indication the select committee no longer believes it can obtain their testimony or records through negotiations. The panel detailed its lengthy effort to reach agreement with Scavino in correspondence that began in October and stretched for months, culminating in Sunday’s contempt report.
Scavino is a particularly crucial witness for the committee. He helped draft or post Trump tweets in the weeks after the 2020 election, stoking misinformation about the results and driving attendance at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, which later morphed into a violent insurrection at the Capitol. The committee also revealed that Scavino spoke multiple times by phone with Trump on Jan. 6 and has insight into his movements that day.
Navarro, on the other hand, crafted a report lodging false claims of election fraud that fed the narratives that Trump attempted to deploy as he tried to subvert his defeat. The select committee revealed that at one point he tried to encourage Meadows to contact Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to Trump who helped drive “Stop the Steal” efforts.
Scavino and Navarro are slated to join Bannon, Meadows and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as the only witnesses held in contempt by the select committee so far. Scavino, Bannon and Meadows were included in the panel’s first wave of subpoenas in September. Bannon and Meadows were both subsequently held in contempt by the House and referred to the Justice Department for criminal charges. The full House hasn’t acted on the motion holding Clark in contempt after he indicated he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Bannon was quickly charged in November for his refusal to cooperate, while the case against Meadows is still pending. Meadows briefly cooperated, providing thousands of emails and text messages to the committee before reversing course and refusing to appear for a deposition.
Scavino sued in January to prevent Verizon from turning over his phone records to the select committee, but his effort to resist the panel’s subpoena for his documents and testimony had proceeded in near total secrecy. The lawsuit is still pending.
The committee subpoenaed Navarro in February, and the former Trump trade adviser has publicly indicated he will not comply with the panel’s demands, citing concerns about executive privilege. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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