Scavino used a series of delay tactics to prevent any substantial co-operation with her investigation, according to the commission, which claims he never dealt with effectively and therefore violated his summons. “Mr Scavino reportedly attended several meetings with the President to discuss election challenges,” the commission said in a statement. “Mr Scavino was also monitoring social media on behalf of President (Donald) Trump, and he did so at a time when the sites Mr Scavino allegedly frequented suggested the possibility of violence on January 6.” The commission cites news outlets discussing Scavino’s follow-up to TheDonald.win, which the report described as “an online forum frequented by people who openly supported and planned the violence in the weeks leading up to January 6.” The committee also notes that Scavino once had a Q-and-A on a subreddit channel that was the forerunner of TheDonald.win. Scavino continues to question his need to testify, according to a March 25 letter from Stanley Brand’s lawyer to the White House, which Brand provided to CNN on Sunday. The letter returns legal questions to the Biden government, which had decided not to protect any of Scavino’s deposits. Scavino points out that the law has not yet been settled on whether the current president can waive the privilege of all testimonies, including Scavino’s conversations with Trump, especially if Trump can claim confidentiality on his own. The issue is different from Biden’s choice of the White House not to keep secret any written records kept by the National Archives, which were released in Parliament after a court dispute that went to the Supreme Court, the letter notes. “We have no legal authority to give the incumbent President a final decision on whether an executive privilege can be imposed on the testimony of a former close aide to Congress,” Bradt wrote in the letter, acknowledging the impending scandal. . Scavino is one of Trump’s closest and most loyal allies, having served in the government from beginning to end and as one of the first members of his campaign. He was closely associated with Trump’s social media channels, frequently posting messages to Trump supporters on behalf of the then President. The commission believes that Scavino is aware of the meetings and the details of the events that preceded January 6, including the strategy meetings that were directly linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The commission accused Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, of making no attempt to comply with the summons, saying Navarro had made it clear that he was unable to work with him because Trump had claimed executive power over the issue. The committee responded by informing him that there were many issues he wanted to discuss with him that were not covered by privilege, but Navarro turned down the offer. Navarro also asked the commission if the proceedings would take place in public. He eventually closed the communication with the commission and referred all questions regarding his cooperation to Trump and his lawyers. The committee noted Navarro citing the privilege despite the fact that many of the issues he wanted to discuss with him had already been written in great detail in his book. “There are issues that the Selection Committee believes it can discuss [him] without raising any concerns about executive privileges, including, but not limited to, questions relating to [his] a three-party public report on alleged fraud in the November 2020 elections and the plan [he] described in [his] “the commission wrote in an email to Navarro on March 1. “In the days before 6 January 2021, according to information received by the Selection Committee, Mr Navarro also encouraged Mark Meadows (and possibly others) to invite Roger Stone to a discussion on 6 January,” the committee wrote. Navarro was very public about his efforts to work with Trump’s campaign to overthrow the 2020 election. In his book, he describes in detail a plan called the Green Bay Sweep, which involved convincing state leaders in many states swing to challenge the election results in an effort to delay and ultimately prevent certification. CNN contacted Navarro for comment. The committee is expected to launch the contempt report on Monday afternoon during a public business meeting. The referral will then go to the Plenary Session of the Parliament for a vote, where it will then be sent to the Ministry of Justice, which will decide if there is enough evidence for prosecution. The commission has forwarded three previous criminal referrals. The first, for Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, was arrested by the Justice Department and led to an indictment against Bannon. He is facing a criminal trial this summer. The Justice Department is still considering a motion of censure against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, which was voted on by the House in December. A third allegation of contempt for former DOJ employee Jeffrey Clark was voted out of committee but did not reach Parliament after Clark agreed to meet with the committee. Clark sat down for an interview, but invoked the 5th Amendment more than 100 times. This story has been updated with additional information. Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
