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The Justice Department will not charge former Trump White House officials Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
The House voted on two separate occasions to hold Meadows and Scavino in contempt of Congress in December and April, respectively, for refusing to testify in front of the committee and recommended to the Justice Department that they be prosecuted. Word that the two former White House officials would not be charged came after former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was indicted Friday for failing to comply with a subpoena.
PETER NAVARRO INDICTED ON CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS CHARGES, IN CUSTODY
“Based on the individual facts and circumstances of their alleged contempt, my office will not be initiating prosecutions for criminal contempt as requested in the referral against Messrs. Meadows and Scavino,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote to the House, according to the New York Times. “My office’s review of each of the contempt referrals arising from the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation is complete.”
George J. Terwilliger III, a lawyer for Meadows, told the news outlet, “The result speaks for itself.”
Donald Trump
“While today’s indictment of Peter Navarro was the correct decision by the Justice Department, we find the decision to reward Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for their continued attack on the rule of law puzzling,” Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) said in a statement Friday evening.
“Mr. Meadows and Mr. Scavino unquestionably have relevant knowledge about President Trump’s role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events of January 6th,” they added. “We hope the Department provides greater clarity on this matter. If the Department’s position is that either or both of these men have absolute immunity from appearing before Congress because of their former positions in the Trump Administration, that question is the focus of pending litigation. As the Select Committee has argued in District Court, Mark Meadows’s claim that he is entitled to absolute immunity is not correct or justified based on the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel Memoranda. No one is above the law.”
Meadows, himself a former congressman, had turned over more than 9,000 documents to the Jan. 6 committee before he stopped cooperating. He was held in contempt after refusing to comply with a subpoena to testify before the riot panel, telling the nine-member committee he would not cooperate because it would require disclosing privileged information. However, the panel argued that Meadows was not protected by executive privilege and that his new book had already included much of the information they wanted to talk to him about.
Scavino similarly refused to appear before the panel, arguing he was protected by executive privilege. Lawmakers sought to question the former deputy chief of staff because he was with then-President Donald Trump the day before the riot as Trump looked to pressure lawmakers to raise objections over the certification of the 2020 election results.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Navarro was indicted on two counts of contempt for his failure to appear for a deposition and flouting document requests. He was taken into custody Friday. As noted by the Washington Examiner’s Byron York, Meadows and Scavino hired lawyers, while Navarro has chosen to represent himself.
Steve Bannon, a former White House official but not at the time of the Capitol riot, was indicted last year by a federal grand jury for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Bannon pleaded not guilty to both charges. The case is set to head to trial July 18 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The Jan. 6 committee is poised to enter a new phase of its inquiry as it prepares to host a series of public hearings over the summer in an attempt to reinvigorate public interest in the Capitol riot. The Jan. 6 committee announced this week that it will host its first public hearing of the back half of its inquiry next Thursday at 8 p.m.
