Bannon faces a minimum of 60 days and up to 2 years in prison at his sentencing. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Is this the United States of Banana Republics? A federal jury just convicted former Trump strategist Steve Bannon of contempt of Congress Friday after he refused to follow a subpoena from the House’s January 6th committee.
Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, currently faces a minimum sentence of 60 days in jail and a maximum of 2 years. The sentencing is set to begin on October 21st.
“I stand with Trump and the Constitution, and I will never back off,” the former Breitbart executive told reporters when speaking on his verdict.
Bannon reportedly thanked both the court officers and jury for their roles in his trial before attacking the Jan. 6 panel.
“I only have one disappointment,” he said. “And that is the gutless members of that show trial committee — the J6 committee — that didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify.”
Attorney David Schoen, who is representing Bannon in court, told reporters the appeal process is “bulletproof” and bound to succeed.
“The overreaching by the government in this case has been extraordinary on every level,” he commented. “But shame on this office, on the United States Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice, for how far it went in this case.”
“They argued to the jury today, that when a person gets a subpoena, and executive privilege is invoked, it’s for Congress to decide whether the executive privilege is valid, and how broad it is. That’s absolutely false,” Schoen asserted.
“Whether one believes executive privilege was properly invoked here was valid, how broad it was, etc., when a former president or a current president invokes executive privilege, it’s presumptively valid, period,” the lawyer explained. “It’s not for Congress to decide that it is not valid.”
Bannon’s legal team attempted to have the case dismissed prior to Friday afternoon’s jury deliberation, contending that there are concerns about a potential violation of Bannon’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
“The nature and substance of the segment present a significant cause for concern regarding possible prejudice to Mr. Bannon’s constitutional fair trial rights and right to a jury trial if a juror viewed the segment or was made aware of it in some manner,” wrote Bannon’s attorneys.
Meanwhile, a gang of late-night show staffers working for Stephen Colbert that was arrested for trespassing at the United States Capitol have recently gotten off the hook with no charges. Bannon, unlike Colbert’s staffers, did not enter the Capitol unauthorized either on or after January 6th, 2021.
