The passage of the contempt resolution, by a vote of 220 to 203, puts the two Trump aides on the road to prosecution by the Justice Department as the commission escalates its investigation into whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election. . Congressman Jamie Ruskin, a member of the selection committee that introduced the contempt resolution in the House of Representatives, said the selection committee needed the House to push for the measure to confirm the consequences of defaming the Jan. 6 inquiry. Citing a federal judge ruling last week that Trump “possibly” committed crimes to return to the Oval Office for a second term, Ruskin told the House that the commission wanted Navarro and Scavino to work together because they tried to overturn an election. . But refusing to comply with their summonses in any form, Ruskin said: “These two witnesses acted in contempt of Congress and the American people. “We have to despise Congress and the American people.” Reports of contempt passed by the House now go to the Department of Justice and U.S. District Attorney Matthew Graves, who is required by law to settle a lawsuit and bring the matter before a federal grand jury. If the Justice Department convicts Trump aides, the consequences could be up to a year in federal jail, $ 100,000 in fines, or both – though it would not force them to comply and the prosecution could take longer. months. Navarro and Scavino’s summons meant that the jury was unable to obtain information directly from them about Trump’s illegal plan to stop then-Vice President Mike Pence from certifying Joe Biden on Jan. 6. However, the commission has quietly gathered in-depth knowledge of their role in trying to bring Trump back to power in recent weeks, and senior officials have decided they could proceed without listening to the two aides, sources close to the investigation say. The jury’s decision that the Navarro-Scavino collaboration was no longer necessary came when it found that it could fill the gaps with others, sources said, and led to the decision to suspend negotiations on their collaboration. The final decision to withdraw from the talks reflects the committee’s belief that it was not worth the time – the inquiry is at a critical time to complete its work before the November midterm elections – to continue its submission for a potentially marginal gain. , the sources reported. House investigators had sought the cooperation of Navarro, a former senior Trump trade adviser who was involved in trying to reverse Trump’s election defeat, for about a month until it became clear they had made no progress. The jury summoned Navarro to help devise – with his own admission to MSNBC and elsewhere – a plan to stop Pence from ending Biden’s certification as part of a Trump “war hall” based at the Willard Hotel in Washington. Navarro also worked with the Trump campaign legal team to pressure lawmakers in Biden’s battlefield states to validate the results and instead send Trump voter lists for certification by Congress at the Jan. 6 session. . But when the plan began to go awry, Navarro encouraged then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Mendowes to call on political agent Roger Stone to discuss Jan. 6, the panel said in its congressional disdain report. last week. The former Trump aide, however, told the selection committee – without providing any evidence – that the former president had invoked executive privilege over the content of his summons and would therefore not provide documents or testimony. With Scavino, the selection committee first extradited the former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications in September last year, after attending several meetings with Trump to discuss electoral fraud, the commission said. But after the commission gave Scavino six extensions that pushed for summonses from October 2021 to February 2022, the former Trump aide also told House investigators that he too would not comply with the order because Trump invoked executive privilege. . The jury rejected the executive’s arguments, saying neither Navarro nor Scavino had reason to ignore the calls because either Trump did not formally invoke protection or because Biden eventually resigned. At the business meeting last week, where the selection committee voted unanimously to propose to the House plenary that Navarro and Scavino be considered contemptuous of Congress, Raskin expressed an emotional rebuke to the alleged arguments for executive privileges. “This is America, and there is no executive privilege here for presidents, much less trained councilors, to plan coups and organize uprisings against the people’s government in the popular constitution and then cover up the details of their crimes. “These two men,” Ruskin said of Navarro and Scavino, “despise Congress, and we must say so, both for their brazen indifference to their duties and to our laws and institutions.” Watching an event with Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night, Navarro noted that he appeared distanced in his impending referral to the Justice Department. “Oh this vote,” Navarro said dismissively, the Washington Post reported.
