In his June 29 interview, attorney Justin Clark contradicted former Trump chief adviser Steve Bannon’s claim that the former president invoked the executive’s privilege over information or materials. concrete, which Bannon had cited as an excuse to avoid testifying before the select committee of the House he was investigating. the insurrection.
Bannon told the committee Saturday that he is now willing to testify, ideally at a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. He had previously challenged a subpoena from Congress and will be tried on charges of criminal contempt later this month. The revocation came after he received a letter from Trump in which he relinquished executive privilege, although both the House select committee and federal prosecutors claim the privilege claim never gave Bannon carte blanche to ignore. a citation from Congress in the first place.
According to prosecutors, Bannon’s attorney “misrepresented before the Committee what the former president’s attorney had said to the defendant’s attorney.”
In October, Bannon’s attorneys told the House select committee that Clark had informed them that Trump would exercise the executive’s privilege over Bannon and “has ordered Mr. Bannon not to produce documents or testify until resolve the issue of executive privilege “.
Prosecutors have previously cited Clark’s emails telling Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, that the letter Costello cited to the committee did not, in fact, indicate that the White House believed Bannon could claim the executive’s privilege. .
“The former president’s attorney made it clear to the defendant’s attorney that the letter offered no basis for total noncompliance,” prosecutors wrote in the file Monday.
The Jan. 6 committee was interested in talking to Bannon about his communications with Trump in December 2020, when Bannon urged him to focus on the Jan. 6 certification of presidential election results. Committee members were also interested in Bannon’s comments in the run-up to the Capitol uprising, including a podcast on Jan. 5, in which he predicted, “All hell will be delivered tomorrow.”
In a court hearing Monday, federal prosecutors described Bannon’s willingness to now testify before the House select committee as a “last-minute” effort that does not change the case against him, noting that he has not filed records. cited.
“The defendant’s last-minute efforts to testify nearly nine months after his breach – he has not yet made any effort to produce records – are irrelevant if he voluntarily refused to comply in October 2021 with the subpoena. select committee, “prosecutors wrote.
Bannon is due to stand trial on July 18.
“The criminal contempt statute is not intended to achieve compliance; it is intended to punish past non-compliance,” prosecutors wrote in their presentation.