Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Former Trump Aide Peter Navarro

Peter Navarro, Director of the National Trade Council speaks during a press briefing in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, on March 22, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday subpoenaed Peter Navarro, former White House trade advisor under the Trump administration.

The panel is demanding Navarro hand over documents by Feb. 23 and appear for a deposition on March 2. Members are accusing Navarro of being involved in a plot to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election, citing public reporting, interviews, and his book, “In Trump Time: My Journal of America’s Plague Year.”

“Mr. Navarro appears to have information directly relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation into the causes of the January 6th attack on the Capitol,” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said in a statement.

“He hasn’t been shy about his role in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and has even discussed the former President’s support for those plans. More than 500 witnesses have provided information in our investigation, and we expect Mr. Navarro to do so as well,” Thompson added of Team Trump’s efforts to challenge the vote counts in swing states.

Navarro last year detailed in his book his so-called “Green Bay Sweep” strategy for Jan. 6, which he said he coordinated with former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon.

According to an excerpt from the book, Navarro wrote of Jan. 6, “The goal is not to get the election overturned today. The goal is to subject the ballots—the legal votes of American citizens along with what we believe to be a flood of illegal ballots—to careful scrutiny and investigation.”

The plan involved at least 100 congressmen and senators, including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who were the first to challenge the vote counts of the 2020 election in Arizona, a battleground state.

Together, according to Navarro, this would allow then-Vice President Mike Pence the option to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election in six key swing states. This could be achieved, his book details, by drawing out certification hearings in a full day of televised hearings, specifically, two hours of debate in each chamber per battleground state.

“In an interview, Mr. Navarro reportedly added that former President Trump was ‘on board with the strategy,’ as were ‘more than 100’ members of Congress,” the Jan. 6 committee said in a release, announcing Navarro’s subpoena.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Navarro for comment.

He said in a statement that Trump had claimed his communications during his time in the White House are protected by executive privilege.

“President Trump has invoked Executive Privilege; and it is not my privilege to waive,” Navarro told Reuters. “They should negotiate any waiver of the privilege with the president and his attorneys directly, not through me.”

Navarro told Newsweek last month that he believes his “Green Bay Sweep” strategy was “within the boundaries” of the U.S. Constitution.

“Everything that was prescribed in the Green Bay Sweep conforms with existing constitutional law,” said Navarro. “We basically peacefully came to a process to examine whether the votes cast in the election were legal.”

“We wanted peace and calm to execute a plan that was within the boundaries clearly, of the U.S. Constitution,” Navarro told the news outlet.

So far, the Jan. 6 committee has issued more than 60 subpoenas and interviewed more than 500 witnesses.