Peter Navarro speaks to the press outside of the White House in June 2020.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on March 8, 2023, because an earlier version of the story did not meet CNN editorial standards.

CNN  — 

Former White House adviser Peter Navarro told congressional investigators this week that he will not provide documents subpoenaed in their probe of the Trump administration’s handling of the federal coronavirus response.

“It is a direct order that I should not comply with the subpoena,” Navarro wrote in a letter, addressed December 7, in reference to an order from former President Donald Trump to “protect executive privilege.”

The House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis issued Navarro a subpoena last month requesting that he provide documents by December 8 and sit for a deposition on December 15. The panel demanded again Saturday he turn over relevant documents, still granting him until the later date to sit for a deposition.

CNN previously reported Navarro had warned the White House in a January 2020 memo the virus could become a “full-blown pandemic.”

The Washington Post first reported on Navarro’s refusal to comply with the congressional subpoena.

While Navarro addressed the letter to “Representative Rayburn,” he presumably intended to address it to South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat and chairman of the coronavirus crisis panel, which is housed in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Clyburn wrote in response that Navarro’s letter “presents no valid basis for refusing to comply with the subpoena.”

“Your refusal to comply is particularly indefensible given that you disclosed many details about your work in the White House, including details of conversations with the former President about the pandemic response, in your recent book and related press tour,” he added.

Navarro could not be immediately reached by CNN for a response to Clyburn’s letter.

Trump confirmed in a statement that he had asked Navarro not to cooperate, saying in part: “It is a Witch Hunt … I’m telling Peter Navarro to protect executive privilege and not let these unhinged Democrats discredit our great accomplishments. The Witch Hunts must end!”

Failing to comply with a subpoena can put a potential witness in contempt of Congress, which can lead to escalating financial penalties and the possibility of jail time. One of Trump’s former advisers, Steve Bannon, was indicted for contempt of Congress last month over his refusal to testify to the committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.