Ex-trump aides Dan Scavino, Peter Navarro held in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas

WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to hold two former top Trump administration officials in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The 220-203 vote sends the contempt resolution against ex-white House deputy chief of staff for communications Dan Scavino and former trade adviser Peter Navarro to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for referral to the Justice Department for possible prosecution The committee’s two GOP members, Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, voted with all

Democrats in favor of the action.

Scavino and Navarro are the third and fourth ex-advisers to former President Donald Trump to be held in contempt by Congress, amid ongoing legal battles over the authority of former presidents and their former aides to assert executive privilege as a shield from testifying to Congress.

“More than 800 Americans have come to testify before our committee,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a member of the panel conducting the investigation, said on the House floor before the vote. “Four of them have categorically refused and blown off the subpoenas of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Scavino and Navarro are defying the authority of the House “in order to avoid coming here to tell the truth,” he said.

There was no immediate comment Wednesday from lawyers for Navarro and Scavino on the House vote.

House Republican leader Kevin Mccarthy of California argued that the contempt action against the two men “is about criminalizing dissent.”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right. The riot on Jan. 6 was wrong. But Democrats’ reaction to trample American civil rights is also wrong,” Mccarthy said. “Do we really want to live in a country where politicians can seize your phone records, compel your testimony, and ignore your rights because they disagree with your politics?”