The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unanimously recommended Monday that Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, aides to former President Donald Trump, be held in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with its subpoenas.
The panel recommended the citations in a 34-page report released Sunday evening. The panel’s vote will permit the recommendation to be considered by the full House.
“The public is still searching for accountability,” Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the panel’s chairman, said at the Monday evening meeting. “I’m proud to say this committee is helping to lead that search for accountability. It is why we are here tonight.”
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Both former aides claimed that executive privilege, a concept granting some confidentiality to executive branch employees, prevents them from having to comply with the panel’s investigation. Thompson disputed those claims as did other members of the panel, who said the concept does not negate congressional subpoenas.
The panel members said the two former aides have firsthand knowledge of the events leading up to the riot and Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election.
“Trying to overturn an election is out of bounds,” Thompson said, “way out of bounds.”
The committee includes just two Republicans, Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Cheney, the panel’s vice chairwoman, said at the committee meeting that Scavino worked directly with Trump to “spread President Trump’s false message that the election was stolen.”
“This effort to deceive was widely effective and widely destructive,” Cheney said.
Cheney said Navarro wrote a book “boasting about his role in planning and coordinating the activity of Jan. 6, and yet he does not have the courage to testify here.”
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Cheney took aim at her House Republican colleagues, many of whom have condemned her work on the panel, contrasting them with Republicans who did provide testimony to the panel, including former White House staff.
“Democracy is fragile,” Cheney said. “Democracy only survives if citizens are willing to defend it.”
