The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to refer former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress.
The decision handed in a 220-203 vote, with solely two Republicans — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — voting in favor of the referral. The two GOP lawmakers are additionally the one Republican members of the Jan. 6 committee.
Both Navarro and Scavino snubbed subpoenas from the Jan. 6 committee to testify and flip over paperwork related to final 12 months’s assault on the U.S. Capitol that disrupted the 2020 electoral vote rely throughout a joint session of Congress.
The committee has mentioned Navarro, a commerce adviser throughout the Trump administration, and Scavino, who served as White House deputy chief of employees, “played key roles in the ex-president’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.”
The panel has famous that Navarro publicly boasted about plans to upend the 2020 election outcomes and printed a guide final 12 months through which he referred to the plan because the “Green Bay Sweep.”
Scavino, who ran then-President Donald Trump’s social media, was one of many first individuals subpoenaed by the committee final 12 months. The panel mentioned Scavino labored with Trump as a part of his “campaign to reverse the election results. This campaign included, among other things, spreading false information via social media regarding alleged election fraud and recruiting a crowd to Washington for the events of January 6th.”
A report issued by the committee final month mentioned each Navarro and Scavino have cited “executive privilege” as their cause for not cooperating with the panel, arguing solely Trump can waive that privilege of their circumstances, although President Joe Biden has already accomplished so.
NBC News reached out for remark to legal professionals for Navarro and Scavino on Wednesday.
Scavino’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, declined to remark.
In a press release after the committee voted to ship the contempt referral to the total House, Navarro maintained that his place is appropriate.
“The Select Committee’s witch hunt is predicated on the ridiculous legal premise that Joe Biden can waive Donald Trump’s Executive Privilege. The Supreme Court will say otherwise when the time comes — as it surely must — and the DOJ knows such nonsense would gut Executive Privilege and the critical role it plays in effective presidential decision making,” Navarro mentioned then.
Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a 12 months in jail and fines of up to $100,000.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., mentioned forward of the vote that the committee was “criminalizing dissent,” and argued the subpoena to Scavino was overly broad.
“Democrats are threatening to throw in jail a good man who’s done nothing but attempt to follow the law, simply because he’s President Trump’s closest aide. Mr. Scavino does not deserve that,” McCarthy mentioned.
The House has already voted in favor of criminal referrals for two different officers who defied the panel’s subpoenas — former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and former White House chief of employees Mark Meadows.
The Justice Department acted on the Bannon advice, which it doesn’t at all times do. Bannon has been charged with two counts of contempt and may face up to a 12 months in jail and a $100,000 high quality if he’s convicted. He has pleaded not responsible and is scheduled to stand trial in July.
The Justice Department has not acted on the Meadows referral, which handed the House in December.
Cheney and Kinzinger additionally voted with Democrats on the Bannon and Meadows referrals.
Zoë Richards and Kyle Stewart contributed.
