The trial of Steve Bannon, a former adviser to former US President Donald Trump, will begin with jury selection on Monday. He is accused of criminal contempt of Congress after he refused for months to comply with the House committee probing into the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
Bannon is accused of violating a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee that demanded his documents and testimony, per ABC News.
One month after the Justice Department received a congressional referral, he was charged with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in November. Each count entails a sentence of at least 30 days and up to a year of imprisonment.
Bannon's trial comes after a whirlwind of action in the case since July 9. The former White House adviser gave the committee notice that he is now prepared to appear over a week ago. Robert Costello, his attorney, claimed that the adjustment was necessary because Trump had renounced his claim to executive privilege barring the testimony.
Bannon, 68, is one of a select group of individuals the House committee has held in contempt and was one of the first possible witnesses to the Jan. 6 committee.
Trump Hinders the Investigation
According to CNN, the committee wanted to obtain his records and question him because Bannon had contact with Trump, was present when the riot broke out in the so-called Trump allies' war room at the Willard Hotel in Washington and predicted that "all hell" was "going to break loose" on his podcast before the incident.
In its report of filing a contempt resolution against Bannon, the House committee stated: "In short, Mr. Bannon appears to have played a multi-faceted role in the events of January 6th, and the American people are entitled to hear his first-hand testimony regarding his actions."
Even as a past president, Trump has regularly invoked executive privilege to try to hinder witness testimony and the disclosure of White House records.
The committee also underlined that Bannon was a private individual when he advised the then-president during the events leading to the unrest because Trump had dismissed him from the White House in 2017.
Bannon Tries To Put Off His Trial
Bannon has made moves to try to postpone the trial as per a report from The Guardian. He has done this by lately volunteering to speak before the committee and by invoking the exposure generated by the committee's public hearings. The move was an effort to delay the trial according to the prosecution.
In separate hearings last week, District Judge Carl Nichols rejected requests to postpone the trial, including one on Thursday when Bannon's attorneys voiced concerns about a CNN report that has since been broadcast about their client and what they claimed were unfavorable remarks made during a hearing last week by the House committee looking into the riot.
Referring to the inquiry of individual jurors before the selection, Judge Nichols said: "I am cognizant of current concerns about publicity and bias and whether we can seat a jury that is going to be appropriate and fair, but as I said before, I believe the appropriate course is to go through the voir dire process."
In his case, Bannon had also tried to bring notable Democrats like Nancy Pelosi as witnesses, but it now seems more challenging for him to do so in light of Judge Nichols' decisions.
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