Unprecedented Congressional Action May Overturn Steve Bannon’s Arrest
On Monday, Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, began serving a four-month prison sentence after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
However, Bannon’s sentence may be reconsidered due to unprecedented actions by Congress.
Last week, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group voted to invalidate all findings of the Jan. 6 committee, declaring it illegitimate and all subpoenas issued by the committee invalid.
House Speaker Mike Johnson believes the committee was wrongly constituted, violated House rules, and may have covered up evidence.
Johnson announced that the House would submit an amicus brief on behalf of Bannon to the Supreme Court to appeal his conviction.
This is the first time Congress has attempted to reverse an arrest by declaring a committee illegitimate after the fact.
In 2022, Bannon’s trial took place in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where the jury’s decision was overseen by Judge Carl J. Nichols, who was appointed by Trump.
Bannon’s team chose not to present any evidence or call any witnesses to counter the charges against him.
He was sentenced to prison in 2022 but delayed his sentence by appealing the conviction.
Bannon has maintained his innocence, arguing that “his actions were in compliance with the law” and that he disobeyed the subpoena because his legal advisers instructed him to wait until issues surrounding executive privilege were addressed.
Executive privilege is the president’s right to withhold information from other government branches to preserve confidential communications and national security.
According to Bannon’s legal team, Trump invoked executive privilege in response to the subpoena. The federal appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction because Trump never formally asserted executive privilege and Bannon did raise the issue before the lower court.
This was the first indictment for criminal contempt of Congress since 1983.
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