Former Trump aide Peter Navarro slammed the House Jan. 6 committee for pursuing what he called a “witch hunt” against him and other Trump-connected officials ahead of their vote to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Mr. Navarro said the Democratic-led panel is acting like a “partisan appeals court” for President Biden, advocating for the president to waive the executive privileges of his predecessor.
Mr. Navarro, who served as the White House trade adviser and strongly backed efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, cited privilege several times over the reasons behind why he could not cooperate with the panel’s questioning of his conversations with former President Donald Trump.
“My position remains this is not my executive privilege to waive, and the committee should negotiate this matter with President Trump. If he waives the privilege, I will be happy to comply; but I see no effort by the committee to clarify this matter with President Trump, which is bad faith and bad law,” Mr. Navarro said in a statement to The Washington Times.
Mr. Navarro also added that the panel is lying about the 2020 presidential election being “free and fair,” mirroring his former boss’s unsubstantiated claims that there was widespread election fraud that led to Mr. Biden being the victor. The former adviser also said the committee should prove its bipartisanship by investigating the response by the Capitol Police, the Pentagon and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the riot.
Mr. Navarro added that the riot was “the last outcome” that he and the former president wanted to see on Jan. 6, 2021.
“We needed peace and calm that day to get a legal accounting of all legal votes,” he said.
The committee is scheduled to debate and vote over criminal referrals on Monday night for Mr. Navarro and Dan Scavino, former deputy chief of staff and social media director.
The vote would later move to a full Congress this week if the panel chooses to advance the referrals.
The panel has advanced three other criminal referrals in their investigation, including for former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt. The Justice Department is reviewing a referral made against former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
A third referral for former acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark was made but became moot before moving to the full Congress after he agreed to be interviewed by the committee.
The panel is chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, and is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans.
Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, two vocal anti-Trump Republicans, are the sole GOP lawmakers on the committee.
• Mica Soellner can be reached at msoellner@washingtontimes.com.
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