Anyone who has followed the Federal Government’s case against Steven Bannon expected a guilty verdict at the end of his trial. Despite the evidence showing that he was covered by executive privilege, much like Eric Holder who also ignored a congressional subpoena, it was clear this was a political witch-hunt from the start.
Executive Privilege is, for those who are unaware,
Executive privilege is the power of the President and other officials in the executive branch to withhold certain forms of confidential communication from the courts and the legislative branch.
Trump had made it clear that the conversations the Jan 6th Committee was seeking information about were covered under Executive Privilege. When the Department of Justice (DOJ) pressed charges on their behalf Trump again said it was a protected conversation.
Trump even wrote a letter, which Bannon entered into evidence, that the conversation was not subject to judicial or legislative review. This has been a longstanding right of executive staff, Biden’s DOJ knows that perfectly well but is willing to do whatever it takes to go after Trump’s team.
What is the most egregious part of this whole saga is that the very resolution that the J6 committee says gives them the power to subpoena Bannon, and thereby prosecute him for failure to cooperate, the committee itself is violating.
House Resolution 503 is a fantastic piece of political theater, but in between the melodramatic grandstanding they lay out the requirements of the committee. It reads,
SEC. 2. COMPOSITION.
(a) Appointment Of Members.—The Speaker shall appoint 13 Members to the Select Committee, 5 of whom shall be appointed after consultation with the minority leader.
In the beginning, Minority Leader McCarthy complied with Nancy Pelosi’s requirements. He listed 5 members of the Republican Party, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN) to fill the allotted spots on the committee. So why are they not on the committee? Because Nancy Pelosi denied the minority party its representation.
After this stunt, McCarthy pulled the remaining nominees for the committee citing its obvious political agenda and the meddling of Pelosi not allowing any dissenting voices.
Determined to continue, Nancy selected Rep Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). With that, the committee was ready to get going. However, there was a real problem, the committee only had 9 members and only 2 from the minority party.
If the issue at hand has not become clear, the situation as it stands is this.
Steven Bannon was just convicted on 2 counts stemming from his refusal to answer a subpoena from the January 6th Committee based on their powers granted in HR 503, while the Committee is also in violation of HR 503.
Even if, hypothetically, the basis of the Committee was legitimate, and they followed all the procedures for setting it up, Bannon would be covered under Executive Privilege.
The fact that the only side who has done anything wrong, the J6 Committee, just got away with prosecuting and convicting an innocent man, perfectly illustrates the farce that is Washington.
The good news is that by all available information Bannon’s legal team has been planning from the get-go to win this in appeals. Hopefully, he can get a fair shake in an appeals court because, in the first round at least, corruption carried the day.