(Photo : Thor Brødreskift / Nordiske Mediedager/ Wiki Commons)
Despite Steve Bannon's last-minute outreach to the January 6 committee, a district judge decided on Monday that Bannon will face trial on July 18 for alleged contempt of Congress.
After the Justice Department referred to Stephen K. Bannon's offer to testify before the House committee looking into the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising as a last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability on charges of criminal contempt of Congress, a federal judge on Monday declined to postpone the former Trump aide's trial, which is scheduled to begin next week.
After a hearing, US District Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected several of Bannon's defenses, including his claim that Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege over his testimony and papers. Nichols said, "I see no basis for extending this case any longer." The trial judge focused mostly on whether Bannon grasped the due dates for responding to Congress' demands.
Steve Bannon Lawyer Tries to Delay Trial
After declining to cooperate with a committee subpoena issued earlier for his testimony and records about his acts leading up to the Capitol riot by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, Bannon, 68, the former Trump top strategist, was arrested in November on two counts of contempt of Congress. If found guilty, the misdemeanor charges carry a minimum sentence of 30 days and a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
The House committee's ongoing hearings about the Capitol siege and politicians' testimonies, according to Bannon's counsel, has sparked a media blitz, tainting the pool of potential jurors, and should therefore be postponed until October.
US prosecutors pleaded with Nichols in an overnight brief to keep Bannon's trial on schedule for July 18 and to keep from the jury Bannon's "sudden wish to testify," which they described as a last-minute attempt to erase the actions that led to his conviction, as per Washington Post.
Bannon was present at the Willard Hotel on January 5 and 6 as Trump's associates convened in a "war room" to plan a legal maneuver to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's electoral victory the next day. He is rumored to have had a phone conversation with Trump that evening.
Trump's Former Adviser Offers Testimony
His testimony might be the smoking gun House lawmakers need to demonstrate that last year's assault on the US Capitol wasn't just a random act of violence but rather Trump and his allies' "last stand" for the presidency.
Bannon's attorneys state in a letter that he is "willing to, and indeed prefers" to testify at a public hearing for the committee on January 6 as opposed to a personal interview.
In his letter, the former Trump adviser's attorney claimed that Bannon had not undergone "a change of posture or heart," but was instead restrained from speaking out by the former president's claim of executive privilege.
Bannon's offer might be an attempt to mitigate the Justice Department's case against him. He could spend up to a year in jail and pay a fine between $100 and $100,000 if found guilty.
But early on Monday, federal prosecutors responded to the presenter of the podcast "War Room." In a meeting with Trump's lawyer Justin Clark in late June, according to the Justice Department, Clark purportedly admitted that his client had never used executive privilege to protect Bannon, according to Daily Mail.
Federal courts have thus far denied Trump's claims of executive privilege. He was unsuccessful in his legal battle to deny the committee access to the National Archives' records about his administration.
A panel of the D.C.-based US Court of Appeals and a US district court both have jurisdiction. According to the decisions of each Circuit, President Joe Biden's waiver of executive privilege for the documents requested by the investigation outweighed Trump's argument.
Trump's appeal was denied by the Supreme Court, which stated in an unsigned judgment that his arguments would have been rejected even if he had still been in office.
The FBI interviewed Trump's lawyer Justin Clark last month, and during that interview, the lawyer asserted that Trump had never invoked the privilege, according to court documents released by the prosecution on Monday.
Rep. Jaime Raskin, D-Md., a member of the House investigation committee, stated on Sunday that Bannon was probably prompted by recent testimony that was scathing in nature and described the president's actions on January 6, 2021, and in the days leading up to the uprising, USA Today reported.
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