“Both men refused to comply with the Electoral Commission’s calls in any way,” Mississippi Democrat Benny Thompson, who chairs the committee, testified before the House Rules Committee Monday. Scavino used a series of delay tactics to prevent any substantial co-operation with her investigation, according to the commission, which claims he never dealt with effectively and therefore violated his summons. Scavino is one of Trump’s closest and most loyal allies, having served in the government from beginning to end and as one of the first members of his campaign. He was closely associated with Trump’s social media channels, frequently posting messages to Trump supporters on behalf of the then President. The commission believes that Scavino is aware of the meetings and the details of the events that preceded January 6, 2021, including the strategy meetings that were directly linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The committee cited news discussing Scavino’s follow-up to TheDonald.win, which the report described as an “online forum frequented by people who openly supported and planned the violence in the weeks leading up to January 6.” Scavino continues to question his need to testify, according to a March 25 letter from Stanley Brand’s lawyer to the White House, which Brand provided to CNN on Sunday. The letter posed legal questions to the Biden government, which had decided it would not protect any of Scavino’s deposits. Scavino, however, argued that the law has not yet been settled on whether the current president can waive the privilege of all deposits, including Scavino’s talks with Trump, especially if Trump can claim that secrecy is his. The commission accused Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, of making no effort to comply with her summons request, saying Navarro had made it clear that he was unable to work with him because Trump had claimed executive power over the issue. The committee has supported Navarro’s use of executive powers, saying for example that many of the issues he wanted to discuss with him had already been written in great detail in his book. Navarro was very public about his efforts to work with Trump’s campaign to overthrow the 2020 election. swing to challenge the election results in an effort to delay and ultimately prevent certification. In a statement to CNN, Navarro responded to the commission’s contempt report by saying he believed President Joe Biden could not relinquish Trump’s executive power in his case. He also claimed that the commission’s investigation was based on a false notion that the 2020 presidential election was “free and fair”. “My position remains that it is not my executive prerogative to resign and the Commission should negotiate this issue with President Trump,” Navarro said in a statement. “If he relinquishes the privilege, I will be happy to comply; but I do not see any attempt by the Commission to clarify this issue with President Trump, which is bad faith and bad law.” Cheney, who serves as vice-chairman of the committee, said on Tuesday: “There is no standard by which you can simply say ‘I’m not coming because someone told me not to do it’, even if this person is the former chairman. . of the United States “. Now that the referrals have passed outside Parliament, they will be sent to the Ministry of Justice, which will decide if there is sufficient evidence for prosecution. The commission has forwarded three previous criminal referrals. The first referral from the House of Representatives for Trump’s former adviser, Steve Bannon, was received by the Department of Justice and led to an indictment against Bannon. He is facing criminal charges this summer. The Justice Department is still considering a motion of censure against former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, which was voted on by the House in December. Scavino was originally called at the same time as Bannon and Meadows. A third allegation of contempt for former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark was voted out of committee but did not reach Parliament after Clark agreed to meet with the committee. Clark sat down for an interview, but referred to the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times. This story and title have been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.
