The Home choose committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday issued a subpoena for Peter Navarro, a former high White Home commerce adviser and ally of former President Trump who, the committee alleges, developed plans to vary the result of the election.
The committee's chairman, Congressman Bennie Thompson, stated lawmakers are in search of data and testimony from Navarro. Members of the committee say Navarro wrote in his guide and gave interviews describing the plan to thwart the certification of the election outcomes.
"Mr. Navarro seems to have info straight related to the Choose Committee's investigation into the causes of the January sixth assault on the Capitol," Thompson stated in an announcement. "He hasn't been shy about his position in efforts to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election and has even mentioned the previous President's assist for these plans. Greater than 500 witnesses have offered info in our investigation, and we count on Mr. Navarro to take action as nicely."
Within the weeks main as much as January 6, Navarro promoted a doc he known as the "Navarro Report" that asserted baseless and discredited claims of election fraud.
In a guide printed final 12 months, Navarro wrote that he and different Trump advisors constructed a plan known as the "Inexperienced Bay Sweep" because the "final, greatest likelihood to grab a stolen election from the Democrats' jaws of deceit."
He described the scheme, which was carried out in coordination with Steve Bannon, in interviews with The Day by day Beast late final 12 months and MSNBC final month. In his look on MSNBC, he informed host Ari Melber that that they had lined up "over 100" congressmen and senators to assist problem the election leads to six battleground states that had been gained by Joe Biden.
"These have been the locations the place we believed that if the votes have been despatched again to these battleground states and checked out once more, that there can be sufficient concern amongst the legislatures that the majority or all of these states would decertify the election. That may throw the election to the Home of Representatives," Navarro stated, arguing the plan was authorized.
In an announcement to CBS Information, Navarro accused the January 6 committee of being "home terrorists" and known as their efforts a "partisan witch hunt." He stated that since Trump has invoked government privilege, the committee ought to "negotiate any waiver of the privilege with the president and his attorneys straight, not via me."
Navarro turned a family identify amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when he turned the coverage coordinator of the Protection Manufacturing Act. The congressional committee investigating the Trump White Home's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has additionally subpoenaed him for failing to answer doc requests. There have been reviews that Navarro wrote memos to the White Home in January 2020 warning of the devastating affect COVID-19 might have on lives and the economic system. Trump claimed throughout a coronavirus briefing in April 2020 that he had discovered about these memos by studying about them in information reviews.
Navarro is the most recent amongst dozens of Trump allies from whom the panel has sought testimony.
Navarro's subpoena comes the identical week that Sarah Matthews, a former White Home deputy press secretary who resigned within the wake of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, testified voluntarily earlier than the Home January sixth Committee, a supply conversant in the investigation informed CBS Information.
Matthews was amongst greater than a dozen cupboard secretaries, political appointees and workers who resigned after the assault on the Capitol, with many citing Mr. Trump's conduct that day.
Thompson informed reporters that two former press aides testified earlier than the committee on Tuesday, with extra depositions scheduled for later this week. The committee has interviewed greater than 500 witnesses for his or her investigation, together with Kayleigh McEnany, who was Mr. Trump's press secretary.
Along with the a whole lot of interviews already carried out, the committee has issued dozens of subpoenas, together with ones to Trump's allies, former White Home officers, marketing campaign aides and people concerned within the planning of the rally exterior the White Home earlier than the Capitol constructing got here below siege. Two high Trump allies, Bannon and Meadows, have been held in contempt of Congress for refusing to adjust to subpoenas, and the Justice Division has charged Bannon. Each stated they're following directions from Trump, who has claimed government privilege.
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi created the Home choose committee final 12 months to analyze the January 6 assault, when 1000's of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol as Congress counted the electoral votes, a largely ceremonial remaining step, affirming Mr. Biden's victory. Lawmakers have been despatched fleeing amid the riot, which led to the deaths of 5 individuals and the arrests of a whole lot extra.
Sara Cook dinner and Zak Hudak contributed to this report.