Former Trump aide Steve Bannon responsible in Jan. 6 contempt of Congress case

Former Trump White Home aide Steve Bannon was discovered responsible Friday of two counts of contempt of Congress after a trial in federal court docket in Washington, D.C.

Jurors deliberated for lower than three hours earlier than convicting Bannon of willfully failing to adjust to subpoenas demanding his testimony and information, which had been issued final September by the Home choose committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

He faces a minimal punishment of 30 days in jail and a most of 1 yr when he’s sentenced on Oct. 21. He additionally faces a positive within the vary of $100 to a most of $100,000.

“The subpoena to Stephen Bannon was not an invite that could possibly be rejected or ignored,” mentioned Matthew Graves, the USA Lawyer for the District of Columbia.

“Mr. Bannon had an obligation to look earlier than the Home Choose Committee to offer testimony and supply paperwork. His refusal to take action was deliberate, and now a jury has discovered that he should pay the implications.”

“We respect their choice,” Bannon, 68, mentioned exterior of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse, referring to the jurors at his trial.

“We could have misplaced a battle right here at this time, however we’re not going to lose this struggle,” Bannon mentioned. “I stand with Trump and the Structure, and I’ll by no means again off that, ever.”

Bannon plans to enchantment his conviction, which got here a day after the Jan. 6 committee held a public listening to that featured proof that included his personal phrases.

The committee performed an audio clip of Bannon, talking to a bunch of individuals on Oct. 31, 2020, days earlier than the presidential election, through which he mentioned that Trump would declare to have gained the White Home race whatever the precise outcomes.

“What Trump’s gonna do is simply declare victory. Proper? He is gonna declare victory. However that does not imply he is a winner,” Bannon mentioned. “He is simply gonna say he is a winner.

That’s precisely what Trump did for weeks after shedding each the favored election vote and the Electoral School vote to President Joe Biden.

On Jan. 5, 2021, the eve of Congress holding a joint session to substantiate Biden’s Electoral School victory, Bannon spoke to Trump on the cellphone for 11 minutes, after which went on a radio present the place he made a darkish prediction.

“All hell goes to interrupt free tomorrow,” Bannon mentioned on that present. “It is all converging, and now we’re on, as they are saying, the purpose of assault.”

“I am going to let you know this: It is not going to occur such as you suppose it’ll occur,” he mentioned. “It may be fairly terribly completely different, and all I can say is strap in.”

The subsequent day, 1000’s of Trump supporters who believed he had gained the election besieged the Capitol, with a whole bunch of them swarming by way of the halls of Congress, disrupting for hours the session confirming the official outcomes.

The leaders of the Jan. 6 committee lauded the jury’s choice Friday.

“The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of regulation and an essential affirmation of the Choose Committee’s work,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who’s chair of the Jan. 6 committee, and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., mentioned in a joint assertion Friday afternoon.

“Because the prosecutor acknowledged, Steve Bannon ‘selected allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the regulation.’ Simply as there should be accountability for all these liable for the occasions of January sixth, anybody who obstructs our investigation into these issues ought to face penalties. Nobody is above the regulation,” Thompson and Cheney mentioned.

Bannon had served as chief strategist and counselor to Trump for a couple of half-year earlier than being ousted in mid-2017. Since then, nonetheless, he has been an ardent backer of the ex-president and the so-called MAGA — “Make America Nice Once more” — motion.

Two weeks after the Capitol riot, on his final night time as president, Trump issued dozens of pardons, together with one to Bannon, who had been criminally charged in federal court docket in New York with swindling donors in a purported effort to construct a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Prosecutors in that case mentioned Bannon acquired $1 million in funds from the We Construct the Wall group, and diverted that cash to a separate nonprofit he had already created, whose ostensible objective was “selling financial nationalism and American sovereignty.” 

In her closing arguments Friday morning at Bannon’s contempt trial, assistant U.S. Lawyer Molly Gaston informed jurors he “selected allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the regulation” by refusing to look for testimony and provides paperwork to the Jan. 6 committee.

“When it actually comes all the way down to it, he didn’t wish to acknowledge Congress’ authority or play by the federal government’s guidelines,” Gaston mentioned. “Our authorities solely works if folks present up. It solely works if folks play by the principles. And it solely works if individuals are held accountable when they don’t.”

Bannon’s attorneys didn’t current a protection through the trial, which started Monday with jury choice.

His attorneys had been hamstrung by pretrial rulings by the choose within the case, who severely restricted the proof they might current at trial.

Throughout his personal closing arguments Friday, Bannon’s lawyer Evan Corcoran tried to counsel that Thompson didn’t signal a subpoena for Bannon, NBC reported. Corcoran dropped that line of argument after the prosecution objected.

Corcoran additionally requested jurors to put aside recollections of Jan. 6 of their deliberations.

“None of us will quickly neglect January 6, 2021,” Corcoran mentioned. “It is a part of our collective reminiscence. However there is not any proof on this case that Steve Bannon was concerned in any respect. For functions of this case we’ve got to place out of our ideas January 6.”

Jurors started their deliberations simply earlier than 11:40 a.m. ET, after closing arguments concluded. The verdicts had been learn out in court docket at round 2:50 p.m. ET.

One other former Trump aide, the commerce advisor Peter Navarro, was arrested in early June on prices an identical to those that Bannon was convicted of.

Navarro failed to look to testify on March 2 in response to the subpoena from the Home panel and in addition failed to supply by Feb. 23 the paperwork sought by that very same subpoena, based on the indictment issued by a grand jury in Washington federal court docket.

– CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.