Steve Bannon Convicted in January 6 Contempt-of-Congress Case

A jury found former Trump adviser Steve Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress on Friday over his refusal to comply with subpoenas from the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

Bannon refused to testify and turn over records as requested by the House panel.

Jurors handed down the verdict in the Washington, D.C., federal court after just three hours of deliberations on Friday afternoon.

Bannon faces a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail per count. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for October 21 at 3 p.m.

Prosecutor Molly Gaston argued during the trial, which began on Monday, that Bannon “chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law.”

“When it really comes down to it, he did not want to recognize Congress’ authority or play by the government’s rules,” Gaston said. “Our government only works if people show up. It only works if people play by the rules. And it only works if people are held accountable when they do not.”

Bannon, meanwhile, declined to testify on his own behalf. His attorneys claimed there was no point in the Trump ally testifying because pretrial rulings limited the evidence he could use to make his case, barring him from “telling the true facts.”

His attorneys did not call any witnesses either, instead arguing that the judge should acquit Bannon because prosecutors hadn’t proven their case.

Bannon’s lawyer Evan Corcoran suggested jurors should work to separate memories of January 6 from the facts of the case when making their decision.

“None of us will soon forget January 6, 2021,” Corcoran said. “It’s part of our collective memory. But there’s no evidence in this case that Steve Bannon was involved at all. For purposes of this case we have to put out of our thoughts January 6.”

Bannon responded to the verdict on Friday afternoon, saying, “I only have one disappointment and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 Committee didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify in open court.”

The ruling comes after Bannon was first indicted in November, one month after the Justice Department received a referral from the January 6 Committee.

Bannon shifted gears earlier this month and agreed to cooperate with the House panel. He wrote in an email to the committee that he was open to appearing for a public hearing after receiving a letter from Trump waiving his executive privilege.

He wrote in the email that he felt obligated to refuse the committee’s initial subpoena because Trump had claimed executive privilege over his testimony.

Bannon was not a White House employee when the Capitol riots occurred, which some experts said meant he was exempt from Trump’s executive privilege declaration. Additionally, the Supreme Court has ruled that a current president’s waiver for executive privilege overrides a former president’s claim of it.