BLINDSIDED

Ex-Chief of Staff Said Trump Was ‘Just Not Interested’ in Stopping Jan. 6: Report

Dan Scavino says he tried to convince Trump to quell the crowd, but the president refused.

A former Donald Trump White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications told special counsel Jack Smith that the ex-president “was just not interested” in stopping the escalating violence during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a Sunday report from ABC News. Dan Scavino previously refused to speak about the riot with the House committee involved in the probe, but after a judge rejected claims of executive privilege in 2023, he talked to Smith’s team. He described the situation as “very unsettling” due to Trump being “very angry” on Jan. 6–not at protesters but at the election being allegedly stolen from him. Scavino and others tried to convince Trump for 20 minutes to release a statement to quell the crowd, but when they walked out of the room and left him alone, he posted on Twitter, accusing then-Vice President Mike Pence of not having “the courage to do what should have been done.” At the time, Scavino was the only person other than Trump with access to the former president’s Twitter account, so he was confronted by White House lawyers when the message dropped. According to ABC News’ sources, Scavino explained he was blindsided, saying, “I didn’t do it.”