Former White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino has evaded attempts to deliver papers subpoenaing him on behalf of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot.
The committee subpoenaed him last month along with other top Trump aides, including Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, and Kashyap Patel. But while the other three seem to have received their papers, Scavino is nowhere to be found, even as the Oct. 7 deadline to comply with the committee’s request to submit documents approaches ahead of the Oct. 15 deposition.
All attempts to serve Scavino have been unsuccessful, sources told CNN. The committee is hoping to gain an understanding of the White House’s communication strategy leading up to the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally by investigating Scavino’s “knowledge regarding the communications strategy of the former president and his supporters leading up to the events on January 6,” according to a letter addressed to him from the committee.
GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who alongside Rep. Liz Cheney is one of two Republicans on the House’s Jan. 6 commission, criticized efforts to dodge the subpoenas.
“The problem is when you start seeing people resist and people obfuscate, you have to look at that and go, ‘Why are they doing that if they have nothing to hide?’ We have a lot of people coming and talking to us voluntarily. We’ll get to the bottom of it,” he said. “There is criminal referrals that can happen if they refuse [because] refusing a subpoena from Congress is a crime.”
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Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks similarly evaded a lawsuit from California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell for “emotional distress” following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. He managed to avoid the papers for three months, forcing Swalwell’s legal team to request a 60-day extension upon finally serving Brooks on June 6. Swalwell also sued former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Rudy Giuliani on March 5 in connection to the Capitol riot.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
