House Resolution 1037 would find two advisors to President Donald Trump — Peter Navarro, who served as White House director of trade and manufacturing policy, and Daniel Scavino, Jr., who served as White House deputy chief of staff — in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. The resolution would also direct the speaker of the House to “take all other appropriate action to enforce the subpoenas.”
The House passed H. Res. 1037 on April 6, 2022 by a vote of 220 to 203 (Roll Call 118). We have assigned pluses to the nays because honoring the subpoenas would undermine the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. President Trump had invoked executive privilege, and as Navarro pointed out, “it is not my privilege to waive” it. The January 6 committee is not a court of law; it is a kangaroo court. In fact, it was rigged from the beginning, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took the unprecedented action of nixing two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) choices for the committee — Representatives Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Pelosi instead put on the so-called bipartisan committee RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) Liz Cheney (Wy.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.).
