Identity of Trump aide who tried to stop Capitol riot committee seeing his phone records is revealed

Donald Trump’s social media manager Dan Scavino used a pseudonym earlier this month to sue Verizon

Trump Legal Troubles (AP)

Donald Trump’s social media manager Dan Scavino was on Friday revealed to be the secret aide who sued Verizon Communications earlier this month to block the 6 January select committee from accessing the former president’s phone records.

On 5 January 2022, Mr Scavino filed a lawsuit under a pseudonym contesting a subpoena issued to the telecommunications conglomerate by the special congressional committee examining last year’s Capitol riots.

On 19 January, US district chief judge Beryl Howell ruled against the lawsuit, after which Scavino went ahead and filed the same case under his name on Friday.

Earlier this week, it was also reported that the House select committee investigating the 6 January insurrection is now in possession of more than 750 pages of Trump White House records it had requested as part of its probe into the worst attack on the Capitol since the 1814 Burning of Washington.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the National Archives and Records Administration (Nara) said the agency “provided the Select Committee with all the records at issue in the litigation” on Thursday evening.

The spokesperson added that Nara will continue producing documents in response to the committee’s request “on an ongoing basis”.

Hope Hicks, senior adviser to the president, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino(L) attend services with US President Donald Trump at the International Church of Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, on October 18, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images)

The committee of seven Democrats and Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger has already reviewed thousands of documents and has had more than 400 witnesses give evidence since it was charged with investigating the Capitol insurrection last summer.

According to a committee source, members and staff have been investigating along several different lines of inquiry, one of which includes efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to pressure then-vice president Mike Pence to unilaterally reject electoral votes from several swing states in order to install Mr Trump for a second term against the wishes of American voters.

The panel is also looking into whether Mr Trump took any action to quell the violence that day, and has spoken to witnesses who have described the former president as having relished the sight of his supporters swarming the Capitol.