Judge refuses to delay Steve Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress

A judge ruled Monday that Steven Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress will not be delayed and will move forward as planned, NBC News reports.

Bannon was indicted last year for ignoring a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, but changed his mind over the weekend and agreed to appear. According to the Justice Department, Bannon's last-minute offer to testify was nothing more than a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.”

Bannon's lawyer attributed his change of heart to a letter from former President Donald Trump that waived a purported claim of executive privilege. But as NBC News points out, the Justice Department says Bannon's own lawyer told the FBI that Trump “never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials" and offered no basis for Bannon's "total noncompliance" with his subpoena.

"Judge Carl Nichols, who previously ruled that Bannon could not argue that he was not guilty because he was relying upon the advice of his lawyer, ruled Monday that Bannon cannot present evidence that he relied upon old opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) regarding executive privilege either," reports NBC News.

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Bannon was among dozens of people called to testify on last year's assault on the Capitol aimed at shutting down Congress over former president Donald Trump's baseless claims that Joe Biden won the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

Investigators believe Bannon and other Trump advisors could have information on links between the White House and the mob that invaded the Capitol on the day it was due to certify Biden as winner.

Although he was not a White House employee or official Trump aide, Bannon's attorneys had previously claimed he was protected by presidential executive privilege and did not have to cooperate with the committee.

According to the letter explaining his about-face, Bannon told the House Select Committee that "circumstances have now changed."

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"President Trump has decided that it would be in the best interests of the American people to waive executive privilege for Stephen K. Bannon, to allow Mr. Bannon to comply with the subpoena issued by your Committee."

In November last year, Bannon turned himself in to the FBI to face charges of contempt of Congress after refusing to testify on the January 6 Capitol assault.

"I'm never going to back down," he told reporters at the time after appearing before a judge to hear the charges.

"We're going on the offense on this. And stand by," he said, repeating the phrase Trump used during the election in 2020 to encourage supporters of a far-right militia group.

Bannon, 68, was indicted by a grand jury with two misdemeanor counts of contempt, each one carrying a penalty of one month to one year in jail, and a fine of up to $100,000.

The attack, which left five people dead, succeeded in delaying the joint House-Senate election certification session for several hours.

With additional reporting via AFP