Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro says that Trump gave him “direct orders” to refuse to comply with a subpoena from House Democrats to turn over documents about the coronavirus response.
The House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis issued a subpoena last month for Navarro to provide documents by December 8, and to depose by December 15. Navarro has stated that he kept a daily journal while working at the White House.
Navarro wrote in a letter on December 7, “It is a direct order that I should not comply with the subpoena.”
Navarro addressed the letter to “Mr. Rayburn,” presumably meaning Committee Chairman Jim Clyburn. The subcommittee resides in the Rayburn House Office Building.
Navarro said that Trump told him to “protect executive privilege.”
When the subpoena was issued, Navarro called it a witch hunt, and stated that he intended to send the committee a copy of his book, “In Trump Time,” which he said would explain the decision making of the White House.
Clyburn responded that Navarro’s refusal is “particularly indefensible given that you disclosed many details about your work in the White House, including details of conversations with the former President about the pandemic response, in your recent book and related press tour,” Clyburn said in a letter to Navarro on Saturday.