BANNON SCOFFS AT CONTEMPT CASE
WASHINGTON — Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon appeared before a judge on Monday to face criminal contempt charges for defying a subpoena from Congress’ Jan. 6 committee, then declared combatively outside court that he was “taking on the Biden regime” in fighting the charges.
Bannon did not enter a plea and is due back in court on Thursday for the next phase of what could be the first high-level trial in connection with January’s insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Combative outside court, he said he was “going on the offense” against the attorney general, the speaker of the House and President Biden. He declared, “This is going to be a misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.”
The 67-year-old Bannon surrendered earlier in the day to FBI agents. He was indicted on Friday on two federal 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.
Federal Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather released him without bail but required him to check in weekly with court officials and ordered him to surrender his passport. If convicted, Bannon faces a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year behind bars on each count, prosecutors said.
Outside the courthouse, a large inflatable rat made to look like Republican former President Donald Trump was on the sidewalk as a crowd waited for Bannon to leave. Some in the crowd shouted expletives at him and called him a traitor, and one man paraded around with a sign that read: “Clowns are not above the law.”
The Jan. 6 committee said that Bannon urged Trump to focus on the congressional certification and was present at an event at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5 in which Trump allies tried to persuade members of Congress to vote against the results.
Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, said his client didn’t appear before Congress because he was told by another lawyer not to come after Trump claimed executive privilege would apply.
“Mr. Bannon is a lay person. When the privilege has been invoked by the purported holder of privilege, he has no choice but to withhold the documents. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said.