Biden rejects executive privilege for ex-Trump advisers Flynn, Navarro

Source: The Hill | March 1, 2022 | Morgan Chalfant

President Biden will not assert executive privilege to shield two former Trump advisers, Peter Navarro and Michael Flynn, from testifying or turning over relevant documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to correspondence shared with The Hill.

Deputy White House counsel Jonathan Su wrote letters to Navarro, who served as President Trump’s trade adviser, and an attorney representing Michael Flynn, Trump’s one-time national security adviser, notifying them of Biden’s decision on Monday.

Biden’s decision was first reported by Axios.  

In the letter to Navarro, Su reiterated that Biden believes an assertion of executive privilege is “in the national interest” given the “unique and extraordinary nature of the matters under investigation.”  

In the letter to Flynn’s attorney, David Warrington, Su noted that Flynn, who resigned in 2017 under pressure after less than a month on the job, left the White House in 2017, long before the Jan. 6 attack in 2021.  

“To the extent any privileges could apply to General Flynn’s conversations with the former President or White House staff after the conclusion of his tenure, President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the national interest, and therefore is not justified, with respect to particular subjects within the purview of the Select Committee,” Su wrote.  

The panel subpoenaed Navarro, who served in the White House until the end of the Trump administration, last month. Navarro has pledged to fight the subpoena in court. 

On Tuesday, Navarro provided The Hill with the email response he sent to Su. In it, Navarro asserted that it was “fanciful and dangerous to assert that a sitting president can revoke the Executive Privilege of his predecessor.” 

“You and the Biden regime along with partisan judges and the witch hunt otherwise known as the Jan 6 committee are doing great violence to the Constitution and the country,” Navarro wrote in the message. “See you at the Supreme Court.” 

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