The House of Representatives voted to hold the former top Trump aides in contempt.
Both men failed to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
The criminal referral to the Justice Department is a result of the vote on Wednesday. It is the fourth time that the House has referred witnesses for prosecution.
The chamber had recommended criminal contempt charges against both Mark and Steve. The department is currently weighing whether to bring charges againstMeadows, who was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress in December. The January 6 select committee voted to recommend criminal charges against the former Justice Department official, but the matter has not yet come to a full floor vote.
The lawmakers debated the contempt votes.
Kevin McCarthy slammed Democrats for punishing dissent in their efforts to compel Scavino and Navarro's cooperation.
McCarthy said on the House floor that the January 6 riot was wrong. The Democrats response is also wrong. For 15 months, Democrats have used January 6 as a blank check to undermine civil rights.
—The Hill (@thehill) April 6, 2022
The congressman from Maryland, who serves on the January 6 select committee, said that he was instrumental in torpedoing the proposal for an independent 9/11-style commission to investigate the deadly insurrection.
Raskin said on the floor that they were going to have a 9/11-style independent commission. Who vetoed it? Donald Trump is the fourth branch of government and some of their members report to him like sycophants.
Donald Trump said he didn't want any investigation into the attack on this body. The minority leader did something. He went back to where he came from. They pulled the plug on the commission.
Attorney General Garland has not commented on the department's deliberations regarding contempt referrals. Garland told reporters that they will follow the facts and the law wherever they lead.
Democrats have become more critical of Garland's leadership as the case drags on.
In July, a trial is set to take place. The advice of counsel of defense is a pillar of the defense strategy that a federal judge ruled cannot be used by the former chief strategist. It is not possible for Bannon to justify his refusal to cooperate with the January 6 select panel by saying that he was following his lawyer's advice.
The committee is interested in the fact that one of the few aides who was given access to the former president's account before it was permanently suspended was Scavino. The January 6 panel believes that Dan Scavino has information about the communications strategy of the former President and his supporters in the days leading up to the Capitol riot.
Rolling Stone has drawn scrutiny for a detailed plot to overturn the election results that was written by Navarro. He said the plan was designed to get state legislatures to decertify the results of the election so that they could hand the election to Trump.
It's... The election would be thrown to the House of Representatives if states withdrew their certification. Even though the House is controlled by Democrats, the way votes are counted in a presidential election would almost certainly go to Trump.
Lawmakers are increasingly voting to hold witnesses in contempt of Congress when they defy subpoenas.
Civil contempt cases can take a long time to settle if the Justice Department decides it has enough evidence to prosecute and get a conviction.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives held then-attorney general Eric Holder in contempt of Congress in 2012 after he refused to turn over documents related to a gun-running investigation. Republicans took the civil route after the Justice Department declined to bring criminal charges against him. A settlement was finally reached in 2019.
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