The Jan. 6 Select Committee on Thursday announced that it will hold a business meeting next week to consider a report recommending criminal contempt charges against former Trump White House officials Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino.
The committee subpoenaed Navarro last month. The panel demanded that the former Trump White House trade adviser provide information about Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election results. While promoting the launch of his new book last December, Navarro detailed his efforts to get former President Trump’s election fraud lies off the ground in late 2020 and January 2021.
The committee’s subpoena to Navarro noted that he described a half-baked plan he concocted with former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon to challenge the election results, a plan they coined the “Green Bay Sweep.” Navarro theorized that the scheme would involve Republican allies on the Hill forcing four hours of debate in both chambers, with the aim of creating a 24-hours GOP propaganda blitz that would’ve pressured then-Vice President Pence to delay the certification by sending the contested tallies back to the states.
Obviously, that didn’t happen.
Scavino, former Trump White House deputy chief of staff for communications, was among the first group of Trump’s cronies subpoenaed by the panel in September. Scavino, who was in charge of the former president’s Twitter account before he was banned from the social media platform, was reportedly with Trump the day before the deadly Capitol insurrection as Trump tried to convince members of Congress to block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
In its subpoena, the Committee noted that Scavino promoted the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the insurrection in tweets from the White House. The panel requested information from Scavino about Trump’s communications strategy leading up to Jan. 6, Trump’s whereabouts on the day of insurrection and whether any unused videos and tweets that Trump recorded and drafted on Jan. 6 exist.
Among Trump’s cronies who defied subpoenas by the committee, only Bannon has been charged with contempt of Congress thus far. Bannon was referred to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for potential prosecution over defying a congressional subpoena after the House voted to hold him in criminal contempt in October. Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial is set for July, but it has been a bit of a mess so far.
Although the House similarly voted in December to refer former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee, the Justice Department has not pursued charges against the former Trump official. Meadows sued the committee, its members, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in an effort to block the enforcement of the committee’s subpoena.
