Contempt vote set for 2 Trump allies

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Thursday that it had set a vote for next week to consider contempt of Congress charges against two aides of former President Donald Trump.

The committee will meet Monday to discuss whether to recommend referring for potential prosecution Trump’s former trade adviser, Peter Navarro, and Dan Scavino, the onetime chief of staff for communications.

The meeting marks the latest effort by the panel to hold uncooperative witnesses accountable. The panel is investigating events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The committee subpoenaed Navarro for his testimony in early February, seeking to question the Trump ally who promoted claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Though Navarro sought to use executive privilege to avoid cooperation, the Biden administration this month denied claims from him and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Navarro called the committee vote “an unprecedented partisan assault on executive privilege. The committee knows full well that President Trump has invoked executive privilege and it is not my privilege to waive.” He said it was “premature for the committee to pursue criminal charges against an individual of the highest rank within the White House for whom executive privilege undeniably applies.”

Navarro said the dispute seemed “inevitably headed” to the U.S. Supreme Court, adding that until there is a resolution, the House committee “should cease its tactics of harassment and intimidation.”