Well, thank God for small victories: last Friday, a federal jury convicted former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress. The charges were for both failing to show up to testify and for failing to turn over requested documents. He claimed he was barred from appearing because Trump had asserted executive privilege (even though Bannon had not been a member of Trump’s administration at the time).
Bannon had sought to delay his contempt of Congress case case, making a last-minute offer to testify before Congress in a public hearing. His offer did not address the panel’s demand for documents.
Let’s not forget, this is the same Steve Bannon who has already been previously pardoned by Trump at the end of his Presidential term. Bannon had previously been indicted for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, stemming from his use of a non-profit group that he ran to make payments to himself and his colleagues, despite promises to donors that their contributions would go to “build the wall.”
Surprisingly, for his contempt trial, Bannon chose to put on no defense at all. Bannon has previously said that he wants to testify publicly (which it appears Trump is now in support of) because he believes that he can change the narrative being developed by the January 6 Committee.
Bannon is clever, no doubt about it. But maybe not as clever as he thinks. It’d be interesting to watch Bannon being questioned by Constituti0nal law professor and Committee Rep. Jamie Raskin.
In any case, sentencing is in October. I guess we’ll see what happens by then.
