Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, surrendered to federal authorities on Monday to face contempt charges after defying a subpoena from a House committee investigating January’s riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon was taken into custody Monday morning and is expected to appear in court later in the afternoon. The 67-year-old was indicted on Friday on two counts of criminal contempt – one for refusing to appear for a congressional deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committee’s subpoena.
It appeared that Bannon was livestreaming the event, as he turned to a camera and said “this is us?” and then began talking to the cameraman:
“I don’t want anybody taking their eye of what we do every day…we’re taking down the Biden regime. I want you guys to stay focused, stay on message. Remember, signal not noise. This is all noise, that’s signal.”
The indictment came as a second expected witness, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, defied his own subpoena from the committee on Friday and as Trump has escalated his legal battles to withhold documents and testimony about the riots.
If the House votes to hold Meadows in contempt, that recommendation would also be sent to the Justice Department for a possible indictment.
Officials in both Democratic and Republican administrations have been held in contempt by Congress, but criminal indictments for contempt are exceedingly rare.
The indictment against Bannon comes after a slew of Trump administration officials – including Bannon – defied requests and demands from Congress over the past five years with little consequence, including during an impeachment inquiry. President Barack Obama’s administration also declined to charge two of its officials who defied congressional demands.
The indictment says Bannon didn’t communicate with the committee in any way from the time he received the subpoena on Sept. 24 until Oct. 7 when his lawyer sent a letter, seven hours after the documents were due.
Bannon, who worked at the White House at the beginning of the Trump administration and currently serves as host of the conspiracy-minded “War Room” podcast, is a private citizen who “refused to appear to give testimony as required by a subpoena,” the indictment says.
When Bannon declined to appear for his deposition in October, his attorney said the former Trump adviser had been directed by a lawyer for Trump citing executive privilege not to answer questions.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC / AP)
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11 Responses
Criminal and enemy of democracy and constitutional rule. Lock him up!
Why does Bannon refuse to testify?
Would like him to receive the maximum incarceration for each charge
Why should he cooperate? The Dems in Congress cried about Russia and everything Elise under the sun for 4 years. Don’t cooperate with these animals for one minute.
@rt: hes probably actually saving democracy. The communist govt will lock him up though
the Democrats are using the FBI for political purposes by targeting all opposition just like the KGB.
@chaylev, will you say the same thing when republicans are the majority and if people ignore a subpoena from them? The law is the law, no one is above it
Dump DemocRATs
That should be our goal
r[e]t[ard], doe[fus], and CT[ambulance chaser]:
would you to clowns agree to testify before a conservative body?
it’s quite obvious that he refuses to dignify them with his presence.
RT, the law is NOT the law; it is only ever used against Republicans and never against Democrats. The US Attorney should be estopped from prosecuting Bannon until Eric Holder is in a cell. Not just for his contempt, but for his role in the actual and serious Gunwalking scandal. And he should be forced to testify about 0bama’s role in that scandal.
Bannon refused to turn over documents because he was reasonably acting on legal advice that it would be against the law for him to do so. It’s as simple as that. He is not a lawyer, and is not competent to form his own opinion on the law, so he took advice and can only act on it. That cannot be a crime.