A federal judge on Monday refused to delay Stephen K. Bannon’s trial next week after the Justice Department called an offer by the former Trump aide to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability” on charges of criminal contempt of Congress.
“I see no reason for extending this case any longer,” U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said after a hearing in which he rejected a host of Bannon’s defenses — including claims that Bannon thought his appearance was covered by executive privilege. The judge narrowed Bannon’s defenses at trial mainly to whether he understood the deadlines for answering the House’s demands to appear and to produce documents.
“While I am certainly cognizant of Mr. Bannon’s concerns regarding publicity, in my view the correct mechanism at this time for addressing that concern is through the [jury selection] process,” Nichols said, adding that he found it “unlikely” the court would be unable to find unbiased jurors.
Bannon, 68, the former Trump chief strategist, was indicted in November on two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a committee subpoena issued two months earlier for his testimony and records about his actions leading up to the Capitol riot by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The misdemeanor charges are punishable by at least 30 days or up to one year in prison upon conviction.
Bannon’s attorneys sought to delay his trial to October, saying that the House committee’s ongoing hearings about the Capitol siege and lawmakers’ statements have fueled a “media blitz,” tainting the pool of potential jurors.
Steve Bannon indicted after refusal to comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena
“Select Committee members are trying to drive home a message to the public — that President Donald J. Trump and his close advisors bear responsibility for the attack” and “that close advisors to President Trump have not cooperated with the Select Committee,” Bannon attorneys David I. Schoen and M. Evan Corcoran argued, the very circumstances raised by his case.
In an overnight filing, U.S. prosecutors urged Nichols to keep Bannon’s trial on track for July 18 and to withhold from jurors Bannon’s “sudden wish to testify,” which they called an 11th-hour ploy to airbrush away the conduct that spurred his prosecution.
“It is important to vindicate the statute and Congress’s authority in these matters to quickly adjudicate the criminal matter,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly P. Gaston argued to Nichols in court.
It would set “a bad precedent” and reward another kind of “contempt and obstruction” to allow Bannon to defy the committee, trigger a Justice Department criminal prosecution and occupy a federal court’s docket only to say on the eve of trial, “Actually, I will comply now” in hopes of dismissing his criminal case, Gaston said.
Bannon, dangling possible testimony, brings new focus to Jan. 6 role
Gaston and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda R. Vaughn added in a written filing, “The Defendant’s purported desire to testify now does not erase his past contempt.”
Nichols, a 2019 Trump appointee who served in George W. Bush’s Justice Department from 2005 to 2009, seemed to accept that argument. In addition to rejecting Bannon’s request to raise executive privilege claims at trial, Nichols also said Bannon could not argue that he believed the Justice Department’s past policy statements on the privilege applying to White House aides covered him or that the House panel was invalid because Republicans had largely boycotted it.
None of the Justice Department’s past statements “concern a situation involving actions committed by a non-governmental employee of a president who at the time of the subpoena was no long in office,” Nichols said.
When Bannon attorney David I. Schoen objected after the ruling, “What’s the point of going to trial if there are no defenses?”
Nichols simply answered, “Agreed.”
Monday’s hearing came one day after Bannon attorney Robert J. Costello wrote House panel chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), saying, “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
Bannon’s offer to appear live and unedited before the House Select Committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 came days before the panel has set a hearing for Tuesday on the Trump White House’s ties to domestic extremist groups.
“I see no reason for extending this case any longer,” U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said after a hearing in which he rejected a host of Bannon’s defenses — including claims that Bannon thought his appearance was covered by executive privilege. The judge narrowed Bannon’s defenses at trial mainly to whether he understood the deadlines for answering the House’s demands to appear and to produce documents.
“While I am certainly cognizant of Mr. Bannon’s concerns regarding publicity, in my view the correct mechanism at this time for addressing that concern is through the [jury selection] process,” Nichols said, adding that he found it “unlikely” the court would be unable to find unbiased jurors.
Bannon, 68, the former Trump chief strategist, was indicted in November on two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a committee subpoena issued two months earlier for his testimony and records about his actions leading up to the Capitol riot by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The misdemeanor charges are punishable by at least 30 days or up to one year in prison upon conviction.
Bannon’s attorneys sought to delay his trial to October, saying that the House committee’s ongoing hearings about the Capitol siege and lawmakers’ statements have fueled a “media blitz,” tainting the pool of potential jurors.
Steve Bannon indicted after refusal to comply with Jan. 6 committee subpoena
“Select Committee members are trying to drive home a message to the public — that President Donald J. Trump and his close advisors bear responsibility for the attack” and “that close advisors to President Trump have not cooperated with the Select Committee,” Bannon attorneys David I. Schoen and M. Evan Corcoran argued, the very circumstances raised by his case.
In an overnight filing, U.S. prosecutors urged Nichols to keep Bannon’s trial on track for July 18 and to withhold from jurors Bannon’s “sudden wish to testify,” which they called an 11th-hour ploy to airbrush away the conduct that spurred his prosecution.
“It is important to vindicate the statute and Congress’s authority in these matters to quickly adjudicate the criminal matter,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly P. Gaston argued to Nichols in court.
It would set “a bad precedent” and reward another kind of “contempt and obstruction” to allow Bannon to defy the committee, trigger a Justice Department criminal prosecution and occupy a federal court’s docket only to say on the eve of trial, “Actually, I will comply now” in hopes of dismissing his criminal case, Gaston said.
Bannon, dangling possible testimony, brings new focus to Jan. 6 role
Gaston and Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda R. Vaughn added in a written filing, “The Defendant’s purported desire to testify now does not erase his past contempt.”
Nichols, a 2019 Trump appointee who served in George W. Bush’s Justice Department from 2005 to 2009, seemed to accept that argument. In addition to rejecting Bannon’s request to raise executive privilege claims at trial, Nichols also said Bannon could not argue that he believed the Justice Department’s past policy statements on the privilege applying to White House aides covered him or that the House panel was invalid because Republicans had largely boycotted it.
None of the Justice Department’s past statements “concern a situation involving actions committed by a non-governmental employee of a president who at the time of the subpoena was no long in office,” Nichols said.
When Bannon attorney David I. Schoen objected after the ruling, “What’s the point of going to trial if there are no defenses?”
Nichols simply answered, “Agreed.”
Monday’s hearing came one day after Bannon attorney Robert J. Costello wrote House panel chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), saying, “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
Bannon’s offer to appear live and unedited before the House Select Committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 came days before the panel has set a hearing for Tuesday on the Trump White House’s ties to domestic extremist groups.