The US Justice Department has rejected the House's request that two of Donald Trump's close White House advisers be charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, the New York Times reported on Friday.
According to the report, Matthew Graves, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, communicated the news to House Counsel Douglas Letter earlier in the day.
“Based on the individual facts and circumstances of their alleged contempt, my office will not be initiating prosecutions for criminal contempt as requested in the referral against Messrs. Meadows and Scavino," Graves wrote, per the report. "My office’s review of each of the contempt referrals arising from the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation is complete."
Shortly after news broke of the development, Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY) - who both serve as part of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot - issued a joint statement blasting the DoJ move.
"While today’s indictment of Peter Navarro was the correct decision by the Justice Department, we find the decision to reward Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for their continued attack on the rule of law puzzling," the statement reads. "No one is above the law.”
Earlier in the day, the Justice Department decided to prosecute former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro with contempt of Congress for disobeying the select committee's orders. Late last year, the DoJ charged Trump aide Steve Bannon with contempt for refusing to comply with the select committee.
When Trump attempted to challenge the 2020 presidential election results, Navarro was still in the White House, but Bannon was removed from Trump's White House in August 2017, although he reportedly continued to be in communication with Trump in later years.
Meadows and Scavino, unlike Bannon and Navarro, who fought subpoenas from the beginning, negotiated with the select committee for months, wrangling over the conditions of potential testimony and the scope of executive privilege.
Meadows also handed over 9,000 text messages and other documents containing exchanges with members of Congress and White House aides, before the committee voted to hold him in contempt, too.
Earlier on Friday, Navarro appeared in court on his own behalf, reportedly telling a federal magistrate judge that the congressional subpoena he had been handed was "illegal" and "unenforceable." He painted himself as a victim of an unjust system driven by Democrats who were out to destroy him and Trump.
House Democrats applauded the decision to prosecute Bannon and Navarro, but both were minor participants in Trump's inner circle during the former president's attempt to overturn the election in 2020. Meadows and Scavino, on the other hand, allegedly played key roles and stood by Trump when a crowd assaulted the Capitol on January 6 last year in an attempt to prevent the transition of power.