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VOL. 46 | NO. 12 | Friday, March 25, 2022
Jan. 6 committee sets contempt vote for 2 former Trump aides
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Thursday that it had set a vote for next week to consider contempt of Congress charges for 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 committee subpoenaed Navarro for his testimony in early February, seeking to question the Trump ally who promoted false 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 another onetime Trump aide, former 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."
Navarro 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 Supreme Court, and until there was a resolution, the House committee "should cease its tactics of harassment and intimidation."
A lawyer for Scavino, who was subpoenaed last September, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that the statement commenting on committee action came from Peter Navarro, not from Dan Scavino.