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Jury selection is underway in federal trial of Stephen K. Bannon, Trump’s former adviser and right-wing podcaster accused of two charges of contempt in Congress for refusing to comply with a Jan. 6 committee order. the Chamber. to hand over records and testify about his actions prior to the attack on the United States Capitol.
The committee issued a summons to Bannon saying he wanted to question him about activities at the Willard Hotel the night before the riots, when supporters of President Donald Trump tried to persuade Republican lawmakers to overturn election results. of 2020. The committee said Bannon spoke to Trump on the phone that morning and in the evening, the last time after Bannon predicted that “hell will explode” on January 6th. a bit of preconception about extreme events that would happen the next day. “
By refusing to testify and handing over the records, Bannon claimed the executive’s privilege, and his attorney said Trump’s attorney Justin Clark contacted him and asked him not to respond.
However, arguments about executive privilege are not expected to be the focus of the trial. During a pre-trial hearing this month, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols dismissed several of Bannon’s defenses, including the claim for executive privilege, and reduced Bannon’s defenses to trial primarily to whether he understood the deadlines for responding to lawmakers’ demands.
Nichols agreed with the prosecutors’ argument that according to a binding legal precedent, Bannon’s reasons for not complying with the summonses from the House panel were irrelevant if he deliberately ignored them. The judge also argued that former President Trump asserted Bannon’s executive privilege, or that he would cover the talks in question because the latter left the White House in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time.
Before the trial, Bannon promises to be “medieval,” but the judge says yes
A former media executive who boasted of creating a “platform for the alternative right,” Bannon has championed a “populist-nationalist” movement since presiding over the Trump campaign for part of 2016. Although he has denied the responsibility for the January 6 Trump riot. supporters, he was seen as an ideological architect of efforts to overturn the January 6 Trump election and rally. His trial comes amid great interest in hearings the Jan. 6 committee has held to investigate the Capitol’s breach in 2021.
Contempt offenses are punishable by at least 30 days or up to one year in prison in the event of a conviction. However, the three offenders who have pleaded guilty to the crime of not being charged with withholding information from Congress dating back to the 1990s have been given parole in statement agreements with U.S. prosecutors.
This story will be updated. Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.