House panel votes to hold Ex-Trump advisers Navarro, Scavino in contempt of Congress

March 27 (UPI) -- The House select committee investigating last year's Jan. 6 attack of the Capitol building recommended Monday night for the House of Representatives to hold two former Trump aides in criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas.

The committee in recommending the charges against Peter Navarro and Daniel Scavino Jr. adopted a report released Wednesday night ahead of the vote detailing the lawmakers' cases against the two men who have refused to cooperate with their investigation by citing executive privilege issued by former President Donald Trump.

The committee's adoption of the report now sends it to the Democrat-controlled House, which could forward it to the Justice Department to consider indicting the two men on criminal charges.

The 36-page report states that a guilty verdict under a contempt of Congress statute is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to a year.

"These two men played a key role in the ex-president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election," committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in his opening reports for the meeting. "The Select Committee subpoenaed them for records and testimony to learn more about their roles and what they knew."

We want to talk to Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro about their roles in the attempt to overturn an election. The American people didn't pay their salaries to do that."

Thompson described Scavino as a man who "strung" the committee along for months before stating he "believes he's above the law" by claiming he is shielded from testimony by Trump's invocation of executive privilege.

"Despite sharing relevant details on TV and podcasts and in his own book, he also stonewalled us," he said.

Committee vice chair Liz Cheney, R-Wy., called Navarro "a key witness" for their investigation, stating that while he has also written a book "boasting" about his role in coordinating activity for Jan. 6, he lacks "the courage to testify here."

"We have many questions for Mr. Navarro -- including about his communications with Roger Stone and Steve Bannon regarding the planning for Jan. 6," she said in her opening remarks.

Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, was charged with contempt of Congress over failing to comply with the committee's subpoenas and was indicted in November, while Stone, a longtime Trump ally and a Republican operative who was also brought before the committee, pleaded the Fifth Amendment rights. Stone was also convicted in obstructing an investigation into Trump's 2016 presidential campaign but had his sentence commuted by Trump.

"Mr. Navarro was not acting as a White House aide advising the president on official matters of policy," Cheney said. "He was acting as a Trump campaign operative planning a political effort to obstruct or impede Congress' constitutional proceeding to count electoral votes."

The committee, consisting of six Democrat and two Republican House lawmakers, has been investigating the causes of last year's attack on the Capitol building by supporters of then-President Trump who were attempting to prevent the certification of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States.

As part of its investigation, the committee has interviewed hundreds of witnesses and issued dozens of subpoenas, including to close allies of the former president and members of his family.

Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, was subpoenaed in February and was supposed to give testimony early this month, while Scavino, a long-time Trump employee, was among the first people to be subpoenaed last fall and was scheduled to be deposed in mid-October.

The report states neither Trump aide has produced a single document that was requested of them.

Navarro had been asked for deposition as he worked with Bannon and others to allegedly develop and implement a plan to delay Congress' certification in order to change the outcome of the 2020 general election.

The committee points to his book, In Trump Time, and a three-part report dubbed "The Navarro Report" that was published to his personal website as proof he has information pertinent to its investigation.

"In a later interview about his book, Mr. Navarro added that former-President Trump was 'on board with the strategy,' as were more than 100 Members of Congress," the report states.

Navarro has claimed he is protected from giving testimony by executive privilege invoked by Trump.

However, Biden has denied executive privilege for Navarro and has made clear that such privilege does not prevent either of them from cooperating with the committee.

Thompson has explained that while Trump has raised the issue of executive privilege with Scavino, only Navarro has tried to invoke this power, which is not how it works.

The report continues that it is also not seeking information related to his official duties.

"None of the official responsibilities of Mr. Navarro's positions included advising President Trump about the 2020 Presidential election or the roles and responsibilities of Congress," the report states. "Nor did those official duties involve researching or promoting claims of election fraud.

"Nevertheless, after the 2020 presidential election, Mr. Navarro became involved in efforts to convince the public that widespread fraud had affected the election."

The report also states that Scavino, who was in charge of Trump's social media and communications strategy, worked on the then-president's "campaign to reverse the election results," including spreading debunked information regarding election fraud, as well as recruiting a crowd to Washington, D.C., for Jan. 6 events.

The committee states in the report that Scavino was reportedly present "for meetings in November 2020 where then-President Trump consulted with outside advisers about ways to challenge the results of the 2020 election."

It also says he was with Trump on Jan. 5 and 6 "and was party to conversations regarding plans to challenge, disrupt or impede the official congressional proceedings."

The report continues that the committee also "has reason to believe" that Scavino had advance warning of the possibility of violence on Jan. 6 as he had a history of monitoring websites known for users discussing potential acts of violence.

"Mr. Scavino did not only work as a White House official. He separately promoted activities designed to advance Mr. Trump's success as a presidential candidate," the committee wrote in its report. "He continued to do so after the 2020 election, promoting activities designed to review the outcome."

Mr. Scavino's public statements and reported conduct make clear the relevance of his testimony and documents for the Select Committee's investigation."

The vote was held after federal judge David Carter ruled earlier in the day that Trump and his legal adviser John Eastman had probably committed federal felonies in connection to the attack on the Capitol building.

According to the ruling, Eastman is believed to have aided Trump's legal strategy to have then-Vice President Mike Pence overturn the election, which Pence declined to do.

Carter said evidence shows that Trump had "more likely than not" attempted to corruptly obstruct the joint session of Congress.

The committee cheered that decision.

"Democracy only survives if citizens are willing to defend it," Cheney said. "We live in the greatest constitutional republic in history. No citizen in our republic can be a bystander. If we don't stand for our freedom and our republic, we will lose them."