Steve Bannon is going to federal court in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. (Patrick Semansky / AP)
Steve Bannon is due to stand trial on two criminal charges for failure to comply with the House investigation on January 6, 2021, 10 months after receiving summonses from the select committee.
Proceedings began Monday with jury selection in federal court in Washington, DC. Twenty-two possible jurors have been found, and on Tuesday morning the 12 members of the jury and two alternates will be selected. Opening statements will begin shortly thereafter.
Remember: the case is important evidence of what influence Congress has when a witness eludes a subpoena from the House. Bannon’s is the first of two similar citation cases of the House select committee that go to trial; a case of contempt against former White House business adviser Peter Navarro is still in its early stages.
Prosecutors promise that his case against Bannon will be presented succinctly, in just a few days, with only two or three prosecution witnesses. This list includes investigators from the House committee.
It is unknown to what extent Bannon’s defense will be, or whether he will want to occupy the position in his own defense. He will not be able to force members of the House to testify, the judge said.
Earlier in the case, Bannon vowed to turn the procedure into “a lesser crime from hell by (Attorney General) Merrick Garland, (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi and (President) Joe Biden.” But at a recent court hearing, his defense attorney David Schoen complained, “What’s the point of going to trial here if there’s no defense?”
Bannon, who accepted an 11-hour pardon from Trump in 2021 when he faced charges of conspiracy fraud and money laundering in Manhattan federal court related to a fundraising scheme for the border wall, has made a series of attempts in the courts in recent days to stop the trial, to further model a defense, or to prepare possible appeals.
So far, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols has been overwhelmingly on the side of the Justice Department about what evidence the jury can hear, cutting off Bannon’s ability to try to postpone the advice he gave him. his lawyer or to use the DOJ’s internal policies on the presidential advisers he hoped to be able to protect him.
Bannon’s ability to raise arguments about the privilege of the executive will, at best, be very limited. Bannon was not a government official during the period the committee is investigating.
Read more here.