The House on Wednesday voted to hold former Trump administration aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the Jan. 6 select committee.
Why it matters: As the panel seeks to piece together former President Trump's actions on Jan. 6, it has referred multiple uncooperative members of his inner circle to the Justice Department for contempt in hopes of extracting their first-hand accounts and documents.
- Former White House strategist Steve Bannon is set to face trial in July after the House referred him to the DOJ and a federal grand jury indicted him.
- The House also voted to hold former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt, though the DOJ has not yet acted on that referral.
Driving the news: The contempt resolution passed 220-203.
- Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), the two Republicans on the panel, voted with Democrats to pass it.
- The panel said in a report last month that Scavino's deposition was delayed six times but that he never testified and "has not produced a single document."
- Navarro has refused to sit for a deposition at all, claiming executive privilege shields him from giving testimony.
Details: The panel has identified Scavino, Trump's former deputy chief of staff, as one of the few people with Trump on Jan. 6, and Navarro, the former trade adviser, as deeply enmeshed in Trump's schemes to overturn the election....
- "It ... appears you were in the vicinity of former President Trump on January 6 annd are a witness