While on trial this week on charges of contempt of Congress, former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon has raised the possibility that he will take the witness stand. Although defendants rarely testify in their own defense, the trial could mark the only time Bannon testifies under oath, because charging him with contempt makes it less, not more, likely he will ever speak to lawmakers.
Bannon is accused of ignoring subpoena demands from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The committee asked him for testimony and documents, particularly about his conversations with President Donald Trump on January 5 and 6, 2021. Bannon refused, citing executive privilege.
But charging Bannon makes it harder, not easier, to get his testimony. As a criminal defendant, he has the right to refuse to answer questions, and he has a legal strategy for trial and possible appeals that may argue against congressional testimony. When Bannon offered to speak to the committee earlier this month, prosecutors said it was irrelevant what Bannon claims he might do now; what mattered was that faced with a congressional subpoena and a deadline, he gave them nothing.
In that sense, the trial can serve as a cautionary tale and a cautionary tale, not for Bannon, but for anyone else who would flatly refuse to engage with the January 6 committee or any other part of Congress.