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Friday, March 8, 2024 | Back issues
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Bannon pleads not guilty to contempt of Congress charges

The former White House strategist’s refusal to help the Jan. 6 committee dig deeper into the Trump administration’s actions leading up to the insurrection has left him facing two misdemeanor criminal charges.

WASHINGTON (CN) — In a court filing on Wednesday, Trump ally Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt of Congress stemming from his refusal to comply with requests from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The plea comes ahead of Bannon’s first scheduled appearance before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on Thursday morning. 

Last month, the House voted to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for defying a congressional subpoena to appear for a deposition and for refusing to produce documents to the Jan. 6 select committee. 

The committee had asked Bannon for more information about the lead-up to the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, as Bannon told listeners of his podcast on Jan. 5 that “hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” Lawmakers also say that Bannon had conversations with members of Congress leading up to the Jan. 6 attack in which he urged them to block the certification of the election.

Just last week, the Justice Department took over and indicted the former Trump White House adviser. 

Both counts carry between 30 days to one year in jail, and a maximum fine of $100,000. 

Bannon isn’t the first person who has refused to cooperate with the Jan. 6 select committee: Last week, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also defied a subpoena to appear for a deposition, and will likely face criminal charges similar to Bannon’s. 

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is in a legal battle with both the committee and the National Archives, in an attempt to keep Jan. 6 documents under wraps. A federal judge denied Trump’s attempt to block the National Archives from giving documents to the Jan. 6 select committee earlier this month, finding a strong public interest in studying the documents and rejecting Trump’s argument that he has executive privilege — or a right to shield certain documents from the public’s view — even though he is out of office.

“Presidents are not kings, and plaintiff is not president,” U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan said in her opinion. 

Meadows and Bannon have also cited executive privilege in their refusal to comply with congressional subpoenas. The Biden White House has declined to invoke executive privilege over the documents. 

Meanwhile, the work of the committee is moving forward, as lawmakers have interviewed more than 150 witnesses and subpoenaed former White House aides and rally organizers.

Categories / Criminal, Government, National, Politics

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