Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Former aide to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, is in the news again. Late last year, we reported that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening unanimously approved a criminal contempt report against Steve Bannon, an ally of former President Donald Trump’s, for defying a subpoena from the panel. The vote sends the measure to the full House for a planned vote Thursday. If the chamber approves it, the referral would be sent on to federal law enforcement for potential charges. The nine-member committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, was united in their scathing response to Bannon’s refusal to come before the panel. Bannon no-showed for a deposition that was sought last Thursday, and did not turn over documents for another deadline a week earlier. “Mr. Bannon will comply with our investigation or he will face the consequences,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in prepared remarks to open a meeting to take up the contempt report.
It is now being reported that Steve Bannon stood outside of a Washington courthouse eight months ago and declared that charging him for failing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee would be “the misdemeanor from hell” for top Democrats.
On Monday, the long-time Donald Trump adviser will find out if the tables have turned.
Bannon, 68, finally goes on trial on criminal contempt charges relating to the congressional probe of the Capitol riot in what promises to be a circus of accusations, brash pronouncements and politics playing out daily in front of the media. Bannon spent months trying to get his case dismissed or delayed, going as far as making a last-ditch offer a week ago to testify to the committee after all. But the Justice Department was unmoved.
“It creates a perverse incentive where people can refuse to comply with government orders,” Amanda Vaughn, an attorney for the government, said during a pre-trial hearing.
The stakes are high. If convicted, Bannon could face jail time and fines. He would also be the first one in Trump’s circle to face consequences for refusing to cooperate with a congressional subpoena. It would be a steep fall for an influential voice of the right-wing, who ran Breitbart News, briefly served as Trump’s chief strategist and is credited for helping catapult him into the presidency.
