3 Reasons The Bannon Conviction Was A Farce

The contempt trial of former Trump aide Steve Bannon was hotwired from the beginning. These 3 reasons illustrate why.

A Washington D.C. jury convicted Steve Bannon on two counts of contempt this afternoon. Bannon ran Trump’s 2016 campaign, was a key behind-the-scenes adviser in 2020 and hosts the popular War Room show of which yours truly watches at least a little bit of almost every day.

The basis for the contempt charge is that the January 6 Committee wanted communications that Bannon had with Trump in the run-up to the rally on that day. Bannon was served with a subpoena. He did not comply. Thus, he was convicted.

At least that’s the narrative the J6 Committee and corporate media want you to believe. It’s true in its essence. But it leaves out three important factors—each of which serve to make this conviction utterly baseless…

Point #1: Is the January 6 Committee itself even legitimate? The rules of Congress are clear in that each party gets to have its own members serve on a Committee and the minority party gets legal counsel. There is none of that on the J6 Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the Republican choices for the committee (Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, both of whom support Trump) and on her own volition, instead chose Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who do not. So every person on the Committee was chosen by Nancy Pelosi.

As a result, there is not a single voice on the J6 Committee that supports Trump or anyone on his team. The fact that this amounts to making this Committee a one-sided propaganda affair rather than a serious investigation is a subject for another day. The pertinent fact for the Bannon case is that if the J6 Committee exists on an illegal foundation, does it even have the power to issue subpoenas to begin with?

Point #2: Trump asserted executive privilege, the power presidents have to keep communications with their aides confidential. The J6 Committee argues that executive privilege does not apply here. Bannon told the Committee that they had to work things out with Trump, either in negotiation or a court of law. Once the executive privilege issue was settled he would comply. Bannon’s lawyer continued correspondence with the Committee seeking ways he might submit materials that were not covered by Trump’s use of executive privilege. Right in the middle of the negotiations, the J6 Committee dropped a subpoena. This is called dealing in bad faith.

Point #3: Within the last two weeks, Trump then revoked executive privilege in this particular instance and agreed that Bannon could testify. Bannon said he would testify, so long as the hearing was public—i.e., that the Committee could not selectively edit testimony in a way that would embarrass Trump. This, by the way, is the core reason for invoking executive privilege to begin with. There is every reason to believe that a Committee that’s already acting in this much bad faith would start selectively releasing portions of communications with the sole aim of painting Trump in a poor light.

In any world that’s remotely sane, none of this would amount to contempt of court. But, you may be wondering, if that’s the case, why wasn’t the jury persuaded?

This is the worst part of it—none of this was allowed to be admitted as evidence. The jury heard none of it—not the debate over the legal foundations of this Committee, not the ongoing debate over executive privilege (which still hasn’t been resolved), not the revocation of privilege and Bannon’s offer to testify in a public hearing.

In fact, simply by reading this article, you are now more informed about the particulars of this case than are the twelve individuals who sat on the jury. That’s why Bannon, in his press conference and again this afternoon on War Room, thanked the jury and told his audience that the jury simply acted on the information they were allowed to see and hear. Which is all skewed toward what the J6  Committee wanted them to hear.

Bannon’s gracious—and accurate—treatment of the jurors is just one reason why he has 10 times the character and integrity of Committee members like Adam Schiff and Cheney.

And that’s why, it’s time for Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans in the voting populace to start asking themselves this serious question—do you really think you’re accomplishing anything constructive by coming after our media voices? Bannon will be sentenced on October 21 and could get up to two years in jail. But do you really think we’re going to shy away from volunteering, getting involved and making our voices heard—the things he encourages us to do every day—because of these kinds of bullying tactics? Do you not see the bad blood that coarses through American politics just got a lot worse today?

If you haven’t noticed, the United States and a lot of the western world is in a free fall right now. Five leaders of governments have resigned in the last several months. Two others—Macron in France and Biden here—are badly on the ropes. The former Japanese prime minister was assassinated. The GOP candidate for governor in New York was just attacked with a knife this week. This is all on top of roaring inflation, the deadliest of economic cancers when it comes to social stability.

Put bluntly, the world is hanging by a thread. So knock off this childish, tin pot dictator nonsense. Enough is enough.