Former adviser Navarro Trump refuses US House Coronavirus probe citation Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has refused to comply with a subpoena for documents linked to the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus, saying he had ordered the former president not to do so, in response to a request released by Congress. Saturday.

A subpoena was issued in November by the House Electoral Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis as part of an investigation into whether former Trump administration officials mismanaged the federal response to the pandemic as an obstacle to the work of his health agency. Nearly 800,000 people have died in the United States as a result of the pandemic.

Navarro, a Republican, was also one of the advisers to former President Donald Trump’s pandemic response and was responsible for hiring the coronavirus response, among other things. Navarro said in a letter to the subcommittee that he would not cooperate because Trump had told him to “protect executive privileges.”

“It’s a direct order not to comply with the summons,” Navarro said in a letter to the commission, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Representative James Clyburn, a Democrat and president of the coronavirus crisis panel, said in a letter to Navarro that he had no valid reason to refuse compliance and that he had denied any privileges in writing talks with Trump about the coronavirus response.

The denial is “particularly indefensible because you have revealed many details about your work in the White House, including details of talks with the former president on the pandemic response, in his latest book and related press tour,” Clyburn said in the letter.

Navarro could not immediately reply to Clyburn’s letter.

Clyburn said the subcommittee expects Navarro to submit all records and information in its possession and appear by Dec. 15, as required by the subpoena.

Clyburn said the quote was issued “instead of establishing a coordinated national strategy to alleviate severe supply shortages, Mr. Navarro and other Trump administration officials shifted responsibility to states and pursued a random and effective approach to procurement – contributing to severe shortages. puts them at risk. ”