Dan Scavino, who has a substantial history as an aide to former President Donald Trump including official responsibilities in the Trump administration, has appeared for what is apparently new testimony to a grand jury involved in the federal investigation into political schemes after the last presidential race to undo its outcome.
Details on what Scavino may have told investigators or topics prosecutors may have broached with the longtime Trump associate weren’t immediately available, but he was among those connected to the former president whose prospective testimony was the subject of legal disputes that ended, as so many others have, in investigators’ rather than Trump’s favor. In a ruling circumstances seemed to indicate covered Scavino, a federal appeals court early last month rejected a last-ditch effort from Trump’s team to shield associates of his from testimony. Trump’s team also lost in an attempt to argue against Mike Pence appearing for questioning, and the former vice president, who infamously faced substantial pressure to act in accordance with a ramshackle procedural plot to essentially usurp power for Trump by legal force, has now done so.
Scavino’s responsibilities around Trump have included running social media presences, so in theory, authorities may have wanted details on the handling of Trump’s Twitter account, which he used to encourage his supporters to descend on D.C. on January 6 and then further encourage anger towards Pence and others, even as the riot unfolded — and even as he made somewhat of a show of halfheartedly pushing the rioters to leave the Capitol. He also posted that what was seen at the Capitol was just sensible considering the (imaginary) election fraud he claimed produced Biden’s win.
Scavino was part of a group of aides who have been ordered to comply with subpoenas from the special counsel’s office after Trump lost legal battles to block them from having to testify on executive privilege grounds. More background on that here: https://t.co/Ukpfi86Ktj
— Daniel Barnes (@dnlbrns) May 2, 2023
