After only three short hours of deliberation, a jury in Washington, D.C. convicted former Trump administration senior political strategist Steve Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress, according to the Washington Post.
Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and longtime confidante of former president Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of contempt of Congress for his refusal to provide documents or testimony to a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Bannon, 68, is the closest person to Trump to be convicted of a crime amid the fallout from the attack on Congress, which occurred as lawmakers met to formally tally the 2020 presidential election result. The contempt case involved legislative efforts to investigate the Jan. 6 violence and what led up to it, however, rather than the actual events of the day.
The trial, which lasted a week and only featured two witnesses, tested a rarely used criminal statute meant to ensure people comply with congressional subpoenas. The verdict, after 2½ hours of jury deliberations, sent a message to other potential committee witnesses, the panel’s chair and vice-chair said in a joint statement.
After the conviction, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the Jan. 6 committee’s chairman, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair, issued a statement that was clearly aimed at failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump:
“The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committee’s work. As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon ‘chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law.’ Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences. No one is above the law.”
Throughout the committee’s hearings, there have been reminders that no one is above the law, and that includes Trump, who may have had a certainly level of security from prosecution while in office, but no longer enjoys that privilege.
Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland also seemed to be sending a message to the ex-president when he told reporters:
During a press conference, a visibly animated Garland twice said that “no person” was above the law when pressed specifically about Trump, whom Democrats say incited the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection over his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020. Democrats also cite Trump’s larger, months-long campaign to try and reverse his election loss. (Trump insists he did nothing wrong.)
“There is a lot of speculation about what the Justice Department is doing, what’s it not doing, what our theories are and what our theories aren’t, and there will continue to be that speculation. That’s because a central tenant of the way in which the Justice Department investigates and a central tenant of the rule of law is that we do not do our investigations in the public.”
Trump is going to be charged. There’s way too much evidence to give him a free pass.
