Ex-Trump adviser indicted for contempt of Congress

Washington, Nov 13 (IANS) A US federal grand jury has indicted Steve Bannon, a one-time adviser to former President Donald Trump, charging him with contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, the Justice Department announced.

The indictment came as Attorney General Merrick Garland has been under pressure to prosecute Bannon after the House voted on October 27 to hold the former chief strategist of Trump in criminal contempt of Congress and referred the resolution to the Justice Department, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law," Garland said in a statement.

"Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles."

Bannon's indictment contained two charges of contempt of Congress, according to the Justice Department, "one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another involving his refusal to produce documents, despite a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol".

Each count of contempt of Congress carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000, the Department said, adding a federal district court judge will determine any sentence for the 67-year-old Trump loyalist.

The House January 6 committee subpoenaed documents and testimony from Bannon on September 23. He missed both the October 7 deadline for documents production and the October 14 deadline for deposition.

Bannon's lawyer, Robert Costello, told the committee his client would not cooperate with the investigation because he had been so directed by Trump, who claimed the documents and testimony being sought were potentially protected by presidential executive privilege.

Costello told the committee that "the executive privileges belong to President Trump" and "we must accept his direction and honour his invocation of executive privilege".

President Joe Biden has refused to assert executive privilege with respect to witnesses and documents, citing the extraordinary nature of the attack on Capitol Hill on January 6 to stop Congress from certifying the result of the 2020 presidential election.

In seeking documents and deposition from Bannon, the ommittee said in the subpoena that Bannon spoke with Trump in the run-up to January 6, that he was present at a hotel in downtown D.C. used by the Trump team as a command centre as the attack unfolded, and that he said on his radio podcast one day prior to the attack that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow."

The select committee has so far issued subpoenas to 21 former officials in the Trump administration for documents, testimony, or both, related to their involvement in the Capitol riot.

Also subpoenaed by the panel, Trump's then chief of staff Mark Meadows didn't appear for his deposition scheduled for Friday at 10 a.m., risking the invocation of the contempt of Congress procedure by the select committee as it so warned Meadows on Thursday night.

Contempt of Congress prosecutions by the Justice Department often have been both time consuming and notoriously difficult to succeed, oftentimes ending in acquittal or dismissal on appeal.

The last time the department prosecuted a contempt referral was in 1983, during the Superfund investigation in the Ronald Reagan administration.

Then Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle was charged with contempt but her case ended in acquittal.