The House Select Committee on the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol voted 9–0 on Monday to recommend that two former advisers to President Trump, Dan Scavino Jr. and Peter Navarro, be held in contempt of Congress.
The vote paves the way for the full House to vote on the contempt charges, which are likely to be approved in the majority-Democrat body.
“They are obligated to comply with our investigation. They have refused to do so. And that’s a crime,” Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.) said at the vote on Monday.
The committee subpoenaed Scavino, the former White House deputy chief of staff, in September 2021 for records of communications. Navarro, a former White House trade adviser, was subpoenaed in February of this year. Navarro said at the time that the committee was conducting a “partisan witch hunt,” in a statement to CBS News.
The committee was formed to investigate the Capitol riot, during which Trump supporters breached the building and delayed by several hours the certification of the Electoral College results. However, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) refused to appoint two Republicans to the committee who were recommended by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.). As a result, almost all House Republicans ceased cooperation with the committee.
“This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation, as Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action of rejecting the Republican members I named to serve on the committee,” McCarthy said in January. “The committee’s only objective is to attempt to damage its political opponents.”
The House has already voted to hold former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress as a result of the committee’s recommendations. Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury in February; to date, Meadows has not been indicted.