WASHINGTON – Two other top aides of former President Donald Trump could face up to a year in prison after the House handed them over Wednesday to the Justice Department for refusing to call a commission for Jan. 6.
The chamber supported an almost partisan vote, 220-203, that trade councilor Peter Navarro and social media director Dan Scavino should be punished for refusing to provide the documents needed to testify about their role in the violent attack on the Capitol. . of the United States. .
“Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro must be held accountable for abusing public trust. “They should be held accountable for their violation of the law,” said Benny Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, who heads the commission it investigates on Jan. 6.
Lawmaker Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming who chairs the committee, said the jury has already heard 800 witnesses, including more than a dozen former Trump officials at the White House, and found numerous warnings that Trump accepted that his repeated lies were “stolen”. “Elections could have led to violence on January 6 last year.
Despite all these particular warnings, President Trump and his team have deliberately tried, in many ways, to stop the peaceful transfer of power, stop counting the constitutional vote and undermine our great nation’s constitutional fund. “- said Cheney, adding that the committee would rather listen to the two men than express their disgust.” Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro did not show up. They shouldn’t have done that, but they did. “
Although the committee had two Republican members, most GOP MPs said the investigation was a guerrilla attack.
“Democrats use the power of the federal government to arrest their political opponents,” said Kevin McCarthy, a spokesman for the California House of Representatives. “Today’s resolution deals with the criminalization of dissent”.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Ruskin said McCarthy and his allies form the “Democrat-Republican Cocoon” and the “Trump Coconut,” which are largely loyal to the former president. “This committee is getting closer to the truth and that’s why we’re doing all this deception in the circus,” Raskin said.
Navarro has openly spoken about a plan to suspend certification scheduled for Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to stay in power despite Trump’s loss. Navarro said he did not need to testify because of his “executive privilege” and told the committee to do so with Trump and his lawyers. He continued to refuse to declare deposition even after a White House lawyer told him that President Joe Biden had decided not to assert executive privilege on his behalf.
Scavino was Trump’s social media director and spent several weeks after Nov. 3, 2020, exposing Trump’s election lies on his Twitter and Facebook accounts, causing anger among his followers, ending in January 6. He has also been with Trump for a long time. That day and often helped Trump compile and post messages.
Trump’s tweet at 2:24 p.m., telling his followers that his vice president was “lacking in the courage” to stop his election, caused an ongoing attack on the building and put Mike in danger Pence, his staff. and his life. Family.
Furthermore, Trump did nothing for nearly three hours to silence his majority, an inaction that the committee focused on in its investigation.
The House previously voted to prosecute two of Trump’s accomplices: Steve Benson, a former White House aide who worked with Navarro to oust the Jan. 6 election, and Mark Meadows, a former Trump cabinet leader who attended . In various elements of his boss’s attempt to cling to power.
Bannon has been indicted by the Justice Department and is awaiting trial, while Meadows’ appeal is still pending.
The committee also supported Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, by recommending disgust, who helped Trump overcome his defeat by falsely claiming that the department had seen evidence of election fraud. But Clark then granted his subpoena and pleaded to be filed, although he exercised his right to a fifth amendment, not to charge himself a hundred times.
A criminal hate charge may not force anyone to testify, but it does make the decision more expensive, with additional legal fees and no court proceedings. If that leads to an inmate, it could lead to a year behind bars.
Trump, despite losing the election with a national vote of 7 million votes and 306-232 in the Electoral College, became the first president in an election in more than two centuries to reject a peaceful transfer of power. The incitement to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6 – the latest attempt to stay in office – killed five people, including a policeman. Another 140 officers were injured and four policemen committed suicide.
However, Trump remains the dominant figure in the Republican Party and openly speaks out about re -voting in the 2024 presidential election.
Source: Huffpost
