Bannon attacks Jan. 6 committee on Fox News after Congress contempt conviction
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A jury needed just three hours to detect Steve Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress.
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Bannon tried to point to his recent offering to testify before the House January 6 committee.
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Prosecutors argued that Bannon saw himself as "above the constabulary" and brazenly defied the House.
Steve Bannon was constitute guilty Friday of criminal contempt of Congress in connection with his defiance of the House commission investigating the January vi, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
A jury in Washington, DC, reached the verdict after near 3 hours of deliberation, handing the Justice Section a decisive victory in a case stemming from a House referral recommending that the longtime Trump ally and onetime White House chief strategist face charges. Another onetime Trump counselor, Peter Navarro, is ready to stand up trial in November on similar charges connected to the House research into January half-dozen and former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Bannon declined to show in his own defence or call any witnesses to the stand. But he emerged from court afterwards each twenty-four hours of the proceedings to accost reporters and runway against the House Jan 6 committee, at one bespeak accusing its members of lacking the "guts" to testify against him at the trial.
As he left court Friday, Bannon pledged to entreatment the conviction, declaring he had lost the "battle" simply not the "war."
"I only accept i disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee — the J6 committee — didn't have the guts to come downwards here and testify in open up courtroom," Bannon said Fri.
Bannon is fix to render to court for sentencing on October 21.
Matt Graves, the Biden-appointed US chaser in Washington, DC, hailed the verdict and said Bannon'south subpoena from the Firm was "not an invitation that could be rejected or ignored."
"Mr. Bannon had an obligation to appear earlier the House Select Committee to give testimony and provide documents," Graves said. "His refusal to do and then was deliberate and at present a jury has found that he must pay the consequences."
The Business firm voted in October to hold Bannon in contempt for refusing to sit down for questioning or plough over documents to the ix-member committee investigating the January 6 attack. Within weeks of that vote referring Bannon to the Justice Department for prosecution, a k jury indicted Bannon on a pair of antipathy of Congress charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of a twelvemonth in prison and $100,000 fine.
The jury of eight men and 4 women establish Bannon guilty on each of those 2 counts.
Alee of Bannon'due south trial, a federal judge fabricated a serial of rulings that severely express his defenses, preventing the former Trump White House advisor from arguing that executive privilege excused his outright refusal to appear before the House committee. Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee confirmed in 2019, also blocked Bannon from arguing that he defied the House committee based on his lawyer's advice.
Prosecutors argued that Bannon "decided he was above the police" and brazenly snubbed the House committee" when he blew off Oct deadlines to sit for questioning and plough over subpoenaed records. In a endmost argument Friday, assistant United states of america chaser Molly Gaston pointed at Bannon and said, "This is a simple case about a man — that man, Steve Bannon — who didn't evidence upwardly."
Later, Gaston pointed to Bannon declaring, "I stand with Trump," in October 2021 after receiving a Firm amendment.
"The defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the constabulary," Gaston said.
Bannon's defence lawyer Evan Corcoran flatly alleged the Trump ally was "innocent" and argued the contempt charges were fueled by politics. In a closing argument that drew multiple objections from Gaston, Corcoran recalled listening to the news about foreign countries where "people in power" attempt to "silence the opposition."
Corcoran urged jurors to uphold what he called an essential principle of criminal prosecutions in the The states: that "politics tin can play no part."
Going into the trial, Bannon appeared to face long odds, and his lawyers made a betoken of preserving the chance to appeal several rulings. Bannon's lawyer David Schoen argued that the defense team was "badly stymied" by its inability, based on a by ruling from Nichols, to call members of the House January 6 committee, namely its chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson.
While the defense team felt handcuffed by the pre-trial rulings, Nichols did allow them to raise Bannon's recent offer to testify earlier the Firm committee after months of stonewalling. Bannon attributed his reversal to a letter from Trump, received about a week before trial, purporting to waive executive privilege.
In a rebuttal to Corcoran's endmost argument, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn told jurors that Bannon's sudden conclusion to testify was designed to "convince you lot that a deadline is not a deadline."
"Give me a break," Vaughn told jurors. "Don't be fooled by that."
Vaughn described Bannon's offer equally "nothing but a ploy" — and "not even a good one" because he however had not agreed to turn over documents.
Prosecutors objected alee of trial to Bannon raising his offering to bear witness, which they had described in pre-trial court filings as a "last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability." But at trial, they appeared to run into an opening to make Bannon'south offer to bear witness backlash against him.
In her questioning of Kristin Amerling, a acme lawyer for the Firm January 6 committee, Vaughn underscored that the offer to show came just earlier Bannon was set to stand trial. And, with the end of the current Congress approaching, Amerling said Bannon's months of defiance had cost the House January 6 committee precious time in its investigation of the Capitol assail and buildup to January half-dozen.
Amerling testified that the Firm Jan 6 committee took an interest in Bannon, in part, because he predicted on his podcast a solar day before Jan half dozen that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow."
Corcoran questioned Amerling'southward impartiality in his closing argument, telling jurors that she has worked for Autonomous members of Congress for 20 years.
"Does she seem like somebody who's used to getting their way?" Corcoran asked. "Why was Steve Bannon singled out?"
Corcoran also chosen attention to how Gaston and Amerling overlapped on a House committee years ago and were part of the same book club.
"Make no mistake," Corcoran said. I'thou not against volume order."
Addressing that portion of Corcoran'southward closing, Vaughn questioned whether he had understood Amerling'due south testimony.
"I don't know what court Mr. Corcoran was in," she said. "But all I learned from that testimony is that Ms. Amerling and Ms. Gaston are book lodge dropouts."
In a statement subsequently the verdict, the chair and co-chair of the Firm select commission called Bannon's conviction "a victory for the rule of law and an important affirmation of the Select Committee's work. As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon 'chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the police.'"
Read the original article on Business Insider
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/steve-bannon-found-guilty-contempt-185014389.html
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