His decision is a remarkable about-face for Mr. Bannon, who until Saturday had been among the most persistent and defiant of the committee’s potential witnesses. He had promised to turn the criminal case against him into a “misdemeanor from hell” for the Justice Department. But with the possibility of two years in prison and large fines looming on the horizon, Mr. Bannon was authorized to testify by Mr. Trump, his lawyer told the committee in a letter late Saturday. The former president had previously instructed Mr. Bannon and other associates not to cooperate with the committee, claiming executive privilege — the president’s power to withhold certain internal executive branch information, especially confidential communications involving him or top aides his – forced them to remain silent. But in recent days, as several witnesses have come forward to testify to the House panel about his conduct, Mr. Trump has grown frustrated that one of his fiercest defenders has yet to appear before the committee, people close to him said. environment. “Mr. Bannon is willing and indeed prefers to testify at your public hearing,” Robert J. Costello, Mr. Bannon’s lawyer, wrote to Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and the committee chairman.
Key revelations from the January 6 hearings
Mr. Costello said Mr. Bannon’s decision to comply with the committee’s subpoena came after he was authorized to testify by Mr. Trump. He provided the committee with a letter Mr. Trump sent to Mr. Bannon on Saturday that waived any claim to executive privilege in connection with that testimony. The committee and the Justice Department have long argued that Mr. Trump does not have a valid claim of executive privilege over Mr. Bannon’s testimony, in part because Mr. Bannon left the White House in 2017 and was a private citizen when he participated in the Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in office after the 2020 election. “When you first received the subpoena to testify and produce documents, I invoked executive privilege,” Mr. Trump wrote in his letter to Mr. Bannon on Saturday. “However, I have watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend huge sums of money on legal fees and all the trauma you have to go through for the love of your country and out of respect for the office of president.” “Therefore,” he continued, “if you come to an agreement as to the time and place of your deposition, I will waive the executive privilege for you, which allows you to enter and testify truthfully and fairly, as requested by unselected committee of political thugs and hacks’. Mr. Bannon’s trial on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress is set for July 18. Each count carries a penalty of up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine. It remains to be seen how Mr. Bannon’s new stance will affect the criminal process and how imminent it will be. He could refuse to talk about certain matters, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, as some other witnesses have done. But the committee has repeatedly said it must hear from Mr. Bannon and obtain the documents it has requested from him about plans to subvert the 2020 election. “We got the letter around midnight from his lawyer saying he was going to testify, and we wanted him to testify,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and a committee member, told CNN on Sunday. “So the committee, of course, hasn’t had a chance to discuss it yet, but I expect we’ll hear from him. And there are many questions we have about him.” If Mr. Bannon does appear for an interview, he would testify behind closed doors like hundreds of other witnesses, Ms. Lofgren said. The commission has carefully choreographed its public hearings to make a streamlined presentation of its case and has worked to avoid public meetings with witnesses. For months, Mr. Bannon was perhaps the most bombastic and hard-hitting potential witness the committee called to testify. He refused to hand over a single document or sit for a minute of deposition. For his intransigence, the House voted in October to hold Mr. Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress. But the committee insisted that Mr. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist and adviser, could help investigators better understand the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, which was intended to stop the certification of the President’s victory Biden. On his Jan. 5, 2021 radio show, Mr. Bannon promised that “all hell will break loose tomorrow,” a statement that showed he “had some foresight about extreme events that would occur the next day,” the committee said. in a report. The investigators also pointed to a conversation Mr. Bannon had with Mr. Trump on Dec. 30, 2020, in which he urged him to focus his efforts on Jan. 6, the day Congress was to officially count the electoral votes. confirm Mr. Biden’s victory. Mr. Bannon was also present at a meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington the day before the violence, when plans were discussed to try to overturn the election results the next day. Mr. Bannon’s criminal case is just the latest against him. Federal prosecutors indicted and arrested him last year in Manhattan on charges related to money raised to promote the construction of Mr. Trump’s long-sought border wall. But before he faced trial, he was preemptively pardoned by Mr Trump, hours before the former president left office.
