US: Bannon indicted on contempt charges over House’s capitol riot inquiry

WASHINGTON: Steve Bannon, a onetime senior aide to former President Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress, after his refusal to provide information to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Bannon, 67, last month declined to comply with subpoenas from the committee seeking testimony and documents from him. The House then voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress.

After holding Bannon in contempt, the House referred the matter to the US attorney’s office here for a decision on whether to prosecute him.

Trump has directed his former aides and advisers to invoke immunity and refrain from turning over documents that might be protected under executive privilege.

A Justice Department spokesperson said Bannon was expected to turn himself in to authorities on Monday and make his first appearance in US District Court here later that day.

A lawyer for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The politically and legally complex case was widely seen as a litmus test for whether the Justice Department would take an aggressive stance against one of Trump’s top allies as the House seeks to develop a fuller picture of the actions of the former president and his aides and advisers before and during the attack on the Capitol.

At a time of deep political polarization, the Biden Justice Department now finds itself prosecuting a top adviser to the previous president of another party in relation to an extraordinary attack by Trump’s supporters on a fundamental element of democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.

The grand jury’s decision to indict Bannon also raises questions about similar potential criminal exposure for Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff.

Before the Justice Department announced the indictment of Bannon, Meadows, a former House member from North Carolina, failed to meet a deadline of Friday morning for complying with the House committee’s request for information.

While Meadows served in the White House during the period being scrutinized by the committee, Bannon left the White House in 2017 and was a private citizen while backing Trump’s efforts to hold onto power after Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. The length of time since Bannon served in the White House has complicated the question of whether he can claim to be covered by executive privilege.

After the referral from the House in Bannon’s case, FBI agents in the Washington field office investigated the matter. Career prosecutors in the public integrity unit of the U.S. attorney’s office here determined that it would be appropriate to charge Bannon with two counts of contempt, and a person familiar with the deliberations said they received the full support of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law, and pursues equal justice under the law,” Garland said in a statement. “Today’s charges reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”

One contempt count is related to Bannon’s refusal to appear for a deposition, and the other is for his refusal to produce documents for the committee.

The committee issued subpoenas in September to Bannon and several others who had ties to the Trump White House, and it has since issued scores of subpoenas to other allies of the former president.

The committee, which is controlled by Democrats, said it had reason to believe that Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and counselor, could help investigators better understand the Jan. 6 attack, which was meant to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.

In a report recommending that the House find Bannon in contempt, the committee repeatedly cited comments he made on his radio show January 5 - when Bannon promised “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow” - as evidence that “he had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur the next day.”

Investigators have also pointed to a conversation Bannon had with Trump on Dec. 30 in which he urged him to focus his efforts on January 6. Bannon also was present at a meeting at the Willard Hotel here the day before the violence, when plans were discussed to try to overturn the results of the election the next day, the committee has said.

Although many of those who received subpoenas have sought to work to some degree with the committee, Bannon claimed that his conversations with Trump were covered by executive privilege despite not having worked in the White House for years at the time of the January 6 riot.

Bannon’s relationship with Trump was strained at times after Bannon left the White House, but he remained a close ally and promoter of Trump’s brand of politics from the outside.

Bannon was indicted and arrested last year by federal prosecutors in Manhattan on charges related to the money raised to promote the construction of the border wall long sought by Trump. But before facing trial, he was preemptively pardoned by Trump hours before the former president left office in January.

Each count of contempt of Congress carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000.

The committee noted that more than 150 witnesses had cooperated with its investigation, providing the panel with “critical details.”

Jamie Raskin, a member of the committee, said the charges showed how differently the Justice Department could act once its leadership was no longer loyal to Trump.

“It’s great to have a Department of Justice that’s back in business,” Raskin said. “I hope other friends of Donald Trump get the message that they are no longer above the law in the United States.”