January 6 committee sends message to DOJ: Do your job

[Celerity]

January 6 committee sends message to DOJ as it recommends criminal contempt charges for 2 more Trump advisers: Do your job

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/politics/committee-vote-dan-scavino-peter-navarro/index.html

(CNN) Members of the House select committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol voiced their frustration with Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice on Monday, as they voted unanimously to recommend two former advisers to former President Donald Trump be referred to the department on criminal contempt of Congress charges.

The message to Garland and DOJ, which has still not said whether it will pursue criminal charges against former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for defying a congressional subpoena, was clear: Do your job. "This committee is doing its job. The Department of Justice needs to do theirs," committee member Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said during Monday's business meeting.

The panel voted to recommend Trump White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and Trump's onetime trade adviser, Peter Navarro, for criminal contempt charges for their refusal to cooperate with the committee's investigation or appear for a scheduled deposition. Virginia Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria said that "the Department of Justice must act swiftly," adding, "I will echo what my colleagues have already said, but more bluntly: Attorney General Garland, do your job -- so that we can do ours."

That message to DOJ was only amplified by committee Chair Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, casting the committee's probe as a struggle for the future of democracy. Referencing the ongoing invasion of Ukraine in her opening remarks, Cheney warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions remind "us what happens when authoritarians rule."

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