The US House of Representatives Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol released a criminal contempt report on former President Donald Trump’s ally, Steve Bannon, on Monday. The report details the steps the committee took to give Bannon an opportunity to comply with the subpoena issued to him, and his repeated failures to respond.
The report, among other things, contains a list of documents requested by the committee when the subpoena was sent out. This included Bannon’s “presence, purpose, statements, and activities at a meeting with Members of Congress at the Willard Hotel on January 5, 2021” and all “public relations, advertising, or other communications efforts to persuade Americans that the election was stolen.” Bannon has since refused to provide a single responsive document or appear for his deposition on October 14, 2021.
On October 7, Bannon’s lawyer, Robert J. Costello, sent a letter to the committee hours after Bannon was required to provide documents, stating that this client was refusing to comply with the subpoena. Costello cited a letter from Trump’s counsel, Justin Clark, instructing Bannon not to comply with the subpoena until a deal involving executive privilege was reached.
The committee’s report addresses this claim of executive privilege, referring to the majority of Costello and Trump’s claims as conclusory statements with no legal analysis. Executive privilege is the power of the president or other high-ranking officials in the executive branch to withhold certain forms of confidential information from the courts. There was no formal invocation of any sort of executive privilege by the former president, or any other employee in the executive branch.
The committee went on to point out that “[a]t no point during the time period under investigation by the Select Committee was Mr. Bannon a government employee, much less a key White House adviser in the Office of the President.” The committee stated that Bannon was a private citizen during the time in which the information is sought, and that the law on executive privilege does not extend to discussions between the President and private citizens. Finally, the committee contended that the majority of the information it seeks from Bannon has nothing to do with his conversations with Trump and should not be protected.
A copy of the committee’s subpoena to Bannon can be found here, with a more detailed look at the requested information on pages 12 and 13 of this document.
This report is a criminal contempt report, marking the first step in a long process to move forward in holding Bannon in criminal contempt for not complying with the subpoena. Many of the lawmakers serving on the committee believe the end goal is to force Bannon to testify. By forcing Bannon to testify, the lawmakers hope to send a message to other individuals that there are consequences for evading subpoenas.
If the report leaves the committee, it is referred to the House of Representatives. If certified by the House of Representatives, the report would be sent to the US attorney for a grand jury trial. Any person found liable for contempt of Congress potentially faces a fine and between one to twelve months in prison. However, this punishment is rarely invoked, and experts believe this would be more of a warning than an overall solution.
