Former White House adviser to the Trump Administration, Steve Bannon, gives a brief statement as he arrives to file at the FBI Washington Field Office on November 15, 2021 in Washington, DC.
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A federal judge on Tuesday set a tentative start date of July 18 for the trial of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the riots at the Capitol.
The trial is expected to last two weeks, Judge Carl Nichols delivered his ruling after hearing federal prosecutors and attorneys for Bannon during a hearing in US District Court in Washington.
The ruling split the difference between requests from prosecutors, who want a speedy trial to begin in mid-April, and Bannon’s attorneys, who asked for 10 months of time to prepare. .
House Vote Bannon with contempt of Congress at the end of October for refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents and testimony issued by the selection committee investigating the January 6 riots.
On that day, hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol, forcing Congress to leave their chambers and temporarily preventing lawmakers from confirming the Electoral College’s victory. by President Joe Biden. Trump and many of his allies, including Bannon, spent months prior to riots making false statements about the election for Biden.
Bannon’s attorney argued that he was following an assertion of executive privilege claimed by Trump, which barred the former senior White House adviser from providing documents requested by the selection committee.
In November, Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress. If convicted, Bannon faces a maximum sentence one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for each count. He has pleaded not guilty.
The January 6 selection committee issued dozens of subpoenas as part of an investigation into the truth and causes of the riot, but Bannon is the only person to date to face charges. forced from the investigation.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said he was no longer cooperating with the selection committee on January 6.
Meadows, a former member of the House of Representatives, in an interview on the online news network Real America Voice, said the committee planned to ask about items he said were protected by executive privilege.
“We found that despite our cooperation and sharing of documents with them, they reached out to us without our knowledge, and without even a polite call, subpoenaed a third-party service provider trying to obtain information,” Meadows said. “And so at this point, we, we feel it’s best that we continue to honor executive privilege and it looks like the courts are going to have to weigh in on this.”
“That is [Trump’s executive] favor; I can’t give up on that,” Meadows said.
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