Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro refuses to provide subpoenaed documents in House Covid-19 investigation
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis issued the subpoena last month as part of an investigation into the federal response to the pandemic, initially asking Navarro to provide documents by date. December 8 and declared deposed on December 15.
Denying the request for documents, Navarro wrote in a letter on December 7, “It was a direct order that I should not obey the subpoena.”
The subcommittee still sat Navarro on December 15 to be removed from office and asked again on Saturday that he resubmit the relevant documents.
Navarro said in his letter to the subcommittee — and to “Representative Rayburn” — he would not cooperate because Trump has told him to “defend executive privilege.”
Navarro probably plans to send the letter to Representative James Clyburn, a Democrat and chair of the coronavirus crisis panel. The subcommittee is located in the Rayburn House Office Building.
The Washington Post first reported the denial.
Clyburn responded in a letter to Navarro that he had no valid grounds for refusing to comply and that he was giving up any privileges by writing about conversations with Trump about the coronavirus response.
The denial is “particularly indisputable because you have disclosed many details about your work in the White House, including details of conversations with the former President about the pandemic response, in the your recent book and related press tour,” Clyburn said in a letter to Navarro on Saturday.
Failure to comply with a subpoena could expose a witness to contempt of Congress, which could lead to escalating financial penalties and the possibility of jail time.
One of Trump’s former advisers, Steve Bannon, was charged with contempt of Congress last month for refusing to testify to the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Navarro could not be reached immediately to respond to Clyburn’s letter.
In a statement, Trump confirmed he had asked Navarro not to cooperate.
“The Communist Democrats are engaged in another Witch Hunt, this time in the wake of my Administration’s unprecedented and astounding coronavirus response, despite the fact that, sadly many Americans have More deaths from Covid this year than in all of 2020,” he said in a statement. “It’s a Witch Hunt… I’m telling Peter Navarro to protect executive privilege and not let these lifeless Democrats discredit our great achievements. The Witch Hunt must end!”
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