Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino both refused to cooperate with the January 6th committee’s witch hunt against President Donald Trump.
The House responded by voting to hold both in contempt of Congress.
The Department of Justice has now refused to prosecute them.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) will not be charging former Trump White House officials Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, The New York Times reported, which cited a letter it reviewed on the matter as well as people familiar with the prosecutors’ decision.
The Friday letter that the Times reviewed was communication between U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and House General Counsel Douglas Letter, the latter of whom was told about officials’ decision, according to the newspaper.
“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 in his message to Letter, according to the Times. “My office’s review of each of the contempt referrals arising from the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation is complete.”
Both Meadows and Scavino had spent weeks negotiating with the committee’s lawyers.
Before the vote, Meadows and Scavino spent weeks negotiating with committee lawyers, in contrast to Navvaro, who ignored the panel.
Meadows also turned over nearly ten thousand pages worth of documents to the group, which is comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans.
“The result speaks for itself,” Meadows’ lawyer, George Terwilliger III, told the paper. Scavino’s lawyer declined to comment to The Times.
Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Liz Cheney released a joint statement upset with the decision not to prosecute.
“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,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the panel, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), chairwoman of the panel, said in a joint statement.
“Mr. Meadows and Mr. Scavino unquestionably have relevant knowledge about President Trump’s role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events of January 6th. We hope the Department provides greater clarity on this matter.”
