A jury is scheduled to hear closing arguments in the trial of former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon on Friday, who faces two counts of contempt of Congress for allegedly refusing to comply with a subpoena regarding the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
That means the 12-member jury could begin deliberating Bannon’s fate on Friday, after just a day and a half of testimony. The government called only two witnesses in the high-profile trial. Bannon, who in the run-up to the trial had promised to go “medieval” on his enemies, called none. Bannon’s legal team argued they should have been allowed to call the Jan. 6 committee chairman, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), but U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols wouldn’t allow it.
Nichols is weighing a defense motion that questions whether prosecutors have met their burden of proof, as well as defense arguments that Thompson’s testimony is essential to their case.
Before sending the jury home on Thursday, the judge said a woman in the courtroom had to withdraw from duty due to a medical problem, although she tried to reassure jurors that it wasn’t covid or anything else contagious This jury will be replaced by one of the two alternates. Without mentioning the prime-time congressional hearing scheduled for Thursday night on Jan. 6, the judge also reminded jurors to turn away from news stories about the attack on the Capitol, as he has throughout trial
Do you remember who said what during the January 6 hearings so far? Take our quiz.
Bannon did not testify during the trial. Speaking to reporters outside court Thursday afternoon, he said the real issue in the case was not the extent of his cooperation with the Jan. 6 committee, but whether the committee was willing to negotiate with him.
In the past, Bannon said, he has given “I think 50 hours of testimony, exactly the same way every time,” before investigations by a special counsel and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. , with a lawyer present invoking executive privilege at times over communications involving then-President Donald Trump.
“We’ve worked on it and time and time again, more than anyone in the Trump administration … Stephen K. Bannon stated,” Bannon said.
Unlike the Jan. 6 House probe, however, those probes occurred while Trump was president and covered conversations Bannon had while in the White House before he left in 2017.
In subpoenaing Bannon, the committee on Jan. 6 said it wanted to question him about activities at the Willard Hotel the night before the Capitol riot, when Trump supporters tried to persuade lawmakers to override the results of the 2020 elections.
The committee said Bannon spoke to Trump by phone that morning and evening, the last time after Bannon predicted “hell will break loose” on Jan. 6.
The insurrection of January 6
The House select committee investigating the 6 January 2021 insurrection has held a series of high-profile hearings throughout the summer. Read the latest hearing summary.
Hearings in Congress: The House committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol has held a series of hearings to share its findings with the American public. The sixth hearing featured explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide.
Will there be charges? The committee could make criminal referrals of former President Donald Trump for his role in the attack, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said in an interview.
What we know about what Trump did on January 6: New details emerged when Hutchinson testified before the committee and shared what he saw and heard on Jan. 6.
The riot: On January 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. Five people died that day or immediately afterward, and 140 police officers were assaulted
Inside the siege: During the commotion, rioters came perilously close to breaking into the building’s inner sanctums while lawmakers, including former Vice President Mike Pence, were still inside. The Washington Post sifted through text messages, photos and videos to create a video timeline of what happened on Jan. 6.