Steve Bannon is making a gamble by asking the House Select Committee for evidence he knows they won't give up.
The former White House strategist has been charged with contempt of Congress, and he's fighting that prosecution by trying to force committee members and key staffers to testify and asking for sensitive documents he's unlikely to get -- which three former House lawyers said would allow Bannon to claim lawmakers and the Justice Department were denying his right to a fair trial, reported The Daily Beast.
“I like the specter of that," said his attorney David Schoen. "We’ve asked for documents that really matter for the American people. I like that optic."
Schoen and his team are prepared to ask the judge to push back the trial set to begin July 18 or issue sanctions against the DOJ if they don't get the records, even though he admitted the Select Committee had the right to hold them back under the Constitution's "speech and debate clause" protecting lawmakers' internal deliberations.
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Bannon's gamble is the same tactic successfully employed by baseball legend Roger Clemens when he was charged with lying to Congress about using steroids, as well as former BP executive David Rainey when he was charged with obstructing a congressional investigation.
But a former House general counsel doubts that Bannon will get what he wants.
“He has to get the court’s approval to subpoena members and staff of House investigations," said Charles Tiefer, who served as acting general counsel for the House from 1993 until 1994. "Judges do not like being manipulated into doing the crazy things that Bannon wants."
