Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino have been voted to be in contempt by the January 6 committee and the vote was almost completely along party lines. Neither are going to testify or provide documentation. The Justice Department will determine any further action. Scavino helped with the rally and Navarro helped with plans to delay certification. Steve Bannon and Mark Meadows are also in contempt.
Contempt is a step
Along the road to determining a punishment. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is a committee member and was lead prosecutor during Trump’s second impeachment. He sniffed that the two men “have blown us off completely. If 90 percent of success in life is just showing up, then 90 percent of acting in contempt of congress is not showing up by failing to respond to multiple subpoenas you’ve been lawfully served. The rest of contempt is not turning over documents you’ve been ordered to produce and acting with open disregard and scorn for the rule of law, Congress and representatives of the American people.”
Contempt doesn’t have any meaning or teeth if nothing is done after it. Meadows’ charge hasn’t been pursued.
The charge will be followed
To its end. Bannon faces a trial this summer with the possibility of two years in jail and $200,000 in fines. Attorney General Merrick Garland waved off a reporter’s question about whether it does any good to accuse of contempt and not go anywhere with it. “We will follow the facts and the law wherever they lead. We don’t comment any further on investigations.”
Republicans brought up that Scavino has kids and this is punishment. It won’t do the committee any good. You won’t get the information you want this way.
The committee is still going down this road
Jim Banks (R-IN) implored the committee to not do this to a father.
“Mr. Scavino has two boys. He’s a good dad, he doesn’t deserve this, his boys definitely don’t deserve this. So before we vote today I have got to ask could anyone here explain to those boys why their dad deserves to be behind bars for a year. Contempt is not enforcement; it’s punishment. Contempt won’t get the committee any information. Only the court can do that. But they don’t want to go to the judiciary. They don’t want neutral arbitration. They want political punishment.”
Liz Cheney (R-WY) emphasized the danger of being involved with Trump at any time.
“Those in this chamber who continue to embrace the former president and his dangerous and destructive lies ought to take a good hard look at themselves. At a moment of real danger to our republic, when the need for fidelity to our Constitution is paramount, they have abandoned their oaths in order to perform for Donald Trump. That will be their legacy.”
Praised for voting in contempt
Raskin called Cheney and Kinzinger heroes for going against fellow Republicans.
Their party began “the utterly cannibalistic process of vilifying and castigating Republicans just because they disagree with the orthodoxy, the dogma handed down by Donald Trump. Because if you don’t go along with what Donald Trump says, if you don’t act like you’re a robot or a member of a religious cult, they will attack you, they will vilify you, they will denounce you. These people, Mr. Kinzinger, Ms. Cheney, are constitutional heroes, and they don’t deserve your contempt. The insurrectionists and the law breakers deserve your contempt, because they are acting in contempt of the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States.”
The committee is making a stink of the people who haven’t been willing to talk while Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner have spoken with them. In fact, the committee has interviewed over 800 people in the desperate attempt to find anything beyond Trump telling his supporters to “go home”.
