The House Jan. 6 committee on Monday voted to recommend that former Trump White House staffers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino face contempt of Congress charges.
It was a necessary step in trying to pry information from two members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle who were closely aligned with him as he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Navarro served as a trade adviser during the Trump administration, and Scavino served as White House deputy chief of staff. Both men have stonewalled the committee, citing potential “executive privilege” claims made by Trump. But Trump is obviously not the president, has no authority to make those claims and, in fact, hasn’t made those claims in either man’s case.
The committee has every reason to want their testimony. The two were involved in — and likely have damning details about — Trump’s effort to keep himself in power.
As Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 committee, explained during the panel’s vote, “privilege does not apply to private political business — much less to criminal activity like conducting coups or insurrections against the government.”
Raskin says no privilege has been asserted for Navarro, privilege doesn’t apply to coups and insurrection, and it was not within Navarro’s job description to overthrow elections/coerce Vice Presidents/impose counterfeit regimes in place of the Constitution pic.twitter.com/gmupexBmup
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 29, 2022
It can be hard to keep up with the rampant misconduct that occurred under the Trump regime, but Navarro and Scavino are two key figures to know.








