GOP plans to retaliate for Bannon indictment faces a major roadblock: report

Republicans have vowed revenge after Steve Bannon was charged with criminal contempt for defying a subpoena from Congress.

On Friday, Politico reported that "within hours of the indictment, Trump's top GOP allies were strongly signaling that a future GOP-led House would use the threat of criminal prosecution to extract testimony from Biden's aides."

In particular, Republicans have threatened to subpoena the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

"Yet Bannon's case may well have no bearing on the GOP enthusiasm for hauling in the Biden White House. Legal experts say the Bannon indictment stands apart from nearly any other contempt of Congress charge in memory — from the brazenness of his defiance to his weak claim of executive privilege, which is meant to protect presidential talks with top advisers, not a private citizen's help for a former president trying to overturn the results of an election," Politico noted.

Republicans would likely have to wait until after the winner of the presidential election is sworn in before succeeding in subpoenaing Klain and Sullivan.

"There's another key issue that could frustrate Republicans' big oversight plans for 2023: Biden will still be president. His authority to waive executive privilege — or uphold it, in the case of his own aides — carries significant legal weight until his term is up," Politico noted.

According to national security attorney Kel McClanahan, "That is an apples and helicopters situation. The person in power, whether they be Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians or Greens — when they own the White House, they own executive privilege, full stop."

The GOP would not only need to win the White House in 2024, but elect a president who will wave executive privilege.

Read the full report.