- The panel probing the January 6 Capitol attack voted Tuesday evening to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for refusing to testify before the panel
- Vote came after the panel rejected an attempt by Bannon, a former Trump aide, to refrain from testifying
- The panel released a report Monday claiming they believe Bannon knew about the impending attack on the Capitol ahead of time
- Bannon said on a January 5 podcast: ‘All hell is going to break loose tomorrow’
The January 6 committee voted on Tuesday evening to hold Steve Bannon in contempt for refusing to testify before the select panel.
Earlier on Tuesday, the panel probing the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters rejected an attempt by Bannon to refrain from testifying.
This vote now paves the way for the entire House to vote on whether to recommend contempt charges. A source familiar with the schedule said that the vote was planned for Thursday.
If the House approves the referral, the Justice Department will decide whether to pursue a criminal case.
‘I would just say that what we just saw was a unanimous bipartisan determination by the January 6 Select Committee to ensure that our subpoenas are observed,’ Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, a member of the panel, said to reporters immediately following the vote.
‘No one in the United States of America has the right to blow off a subpoena by court or by the United States Congress,’ he continued. ‘If Mr. Bannon wants to show up and plead the Fifth Amendment because he will incriminate himself, he has that constitutional right. We of course had the authority to offer him use immunity so that we wouldn’t use any evidence against him directly, that’s been well established by the Supreme Court.’
In a Monday report, the panel argued that Bannon made statements suggesting he knew ahead of time about ‘extreme events’ on January 6, when Congress was scheduled to certify Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election against Trump.
Bannon said on a January 5 podcast: ‘All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.’
The next day, thousands of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol as part of a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in an attempt to overturn Trump’s election defeat, which Trump still claims was the result of widespread fraud.
Before leaving office in January, Trump pardoned Bannon of charges he had swindled the Republican president’s supporters. Trump has urged former aides subpoenaed by the panel to reject its requests, claiming the right to withhold information because of executive privilege, a legal principle that protects many White House communications.
President Joe Biden’s White House argues Trump has no legitimate privilege claim.