Stephanie Grisham says Trump aides who don't cooperate with House Jan. 6 investigators should be punished

• Stephanie Grisham discussed the DOJ's decision to charge Peter Navarro, yet not 2 other ex-Trump aides.
• Grisham said Trump aides should be punished if they don't cooperate with the Jan. 6 commission.

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said that former Trump administration officials should be punished for not cooperating with the House committee investigating the Capitol riot.

In a Sunday interview with CNN's Jim Acosta, Grisham welcomed the Justice Department's decision to indict the former Trump aide Peter Navarro for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the committee.

But she was critical of the decision not to charge former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and his deputy, Dan Scavino, over their refusal to cooperate.

"I truly was confused by that, most certainly with Mark Meadows, who was chief of staff at that time and who was facilitating so many conversations and meetings and doing all of President Trump's bidding. I was puzzled by it," said Grisham.

"I was happy to see what happened with Peter Navarro. That was important. I think that the Trump team always gets away with no consequences. I know that only because I was part of that world and that was the attitude, we were very flippant because nobody was going to get us," said Grisham.

"And so I think that with the DOJ's latest decision, specifically with Meadows, it's just more of — they get away with it all and that's disappointing for a lot of people."

Of Navarro's charges, she said: "I was happy to see that because he had been openly defying the committee, he has been openly defying everybody and I don't think it's going to make him flip ... I think it's so important we show people that your actions have consequences."

During the Trump presidency, Grisham served as Trump's press secretary as well as a close aide to first lady Melania Trump, and resigned from the administration in the wake of the Capitol riot.

In a scathing memoir about her time working for Trump, Grisham claimed that Meadows helped organize off-the-books meetings for the president ahead of January 6, 2021, in an effort to shield the contents of the discussions from the National Archive.

Grisham has also testified to the committee about events leading up to the riot.

Meadows initially cooperated with the January 6 commission, but reversed his decision and refused to cooperate. Scavino has also refused to cooperate. Both men claim that their work for Trump is shielded by executive privilege.

Congress charged both Navarro and Steve Bannon, another former Trump aide, face charges of contempt of Congress over their refusal to cooperate with the committee.

The committee is set to hold its first public hearings this Thursday.