Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has been found guilty of contempt of the US Congress by a jury in Washington.
The jury found Bannon (68) guilty on two counts for failing to co-operate with the committee of the House of Representatives, which is investigating the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump on January 6th, 2021.
After two days of evidence and witness testimony the jury reached a unanimous verdict in less than three hours.
Each of the two misdemeanour charges is punishable by at least 30 days and up to one year in prison.
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However, such prosecutions are rare, and no one has been jailed for contempt of Congress in about 50 years. Bannon will be sentenced by US district judge Carl Nichols on October 21st.
Bannon said after the verdict on Friday that he would be appealing the decision.
Speaking outside the court he said “we have lost a battle today but we are not going to lose this war”.
He said he had only one disappointment that the “gutless members” of what he described as the “January 6th show trial” in the House of Representatives did not come and testify in his court case.
Bannon’s lawyer David Schoen said outside the court that his client had “a bulletproof appeal”.
Assistant US attorney Molly Gaston said in closing arguments on Friday morning that “the defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law”.
“This case is not complicated, but it is important,” she said.
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Ms Gaston highlighted Bannon’s failure to respond or to produce a single document before the subpoena deadline, after which his lawyers said that Mr Trump intended to invoke executive privilege.
In closing arguments Bannon’s lawyer Evan Corcoran said his client did not intentionally refuse to comply with a subpoena issued by the January 6th committee.
He suggested the committee’s subpoena was illegitimate and politically motivated, and that the deadlines to comply were open to further negotiation.
The judge had rejected a number of proposed defences put forward by Bannon, including that Mr Trump had claimed executive privilege over his testimony and documents.
Before court started on Friday, Mr Bannon’s legal team made a written request to the judge to ask the jurors if they had watched what they described as a “highly inflammatory segment” of the Thursday night January 6th committee hearing that had featured their client. But the judge declined to question the jurors.
The verdict marked the first successful prosecution for contempt of Congress since 1974, when a judge found G Gordon Liddy, a conspirator in the Watergate scandal that prompted president Richard Nixon’s resignation, guilty.
Bannon was a key adviser to Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, then served as his chief White House strategist during 2017 before a falling-out between the two that was later resolved. Bannon has also played an instrumental role in right-wing media.
