What happened
A defiant Steve Bannon surrendered
to federal authorities and appeared
in court this week, after the former
President Trump adviser was indicted
on contempt of Congress charges for
refusing to cooperate with the House
special committee investigating the
Jan. 6 insurrection. Bannon vowed in
combative terms to fight the charges,
escalating a battle between the com-
mittee and the former president, who
has refused to cooperate and directed
his former associates to do likewise.
“They took on the wrong guy this
time,” said Bannon, who cast the
prosecution as a politically motivated
gambit by an “illegitimate” administration. “We’re taking down the
Biden regime.” After the 2020 election, Bannon took part in a “war
room” set up by Trump associates to find a way to overturn the elec-
tion results, and on Jan. 5, he said on a podcast, “All hell is going to
break loose” tomorrow. The House committee is trying to determine
whether the Trump administration and Republican officeholders
were involved in planning and abetting the violent Capitol invasion.
The Justice Department’s decision to pursue charges against Bannon
marked a victory for the Democrat-dominated panel, which so far
has privately interviewed some 200 witnesses. The panel has subpoe-
naed 35 people, including many former senior Trump aides, among
them chief of staff Mark Meadows—who last week failed to appear
for a deposition—press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Trump
body man turned top adviser Johnny McEntee. Bannon’s indictment
“should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore
the Select Committee or stonewall our investigation,” said Chair
Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Republicans rallied around Bannon, accusing Democrats of weapon-
izing the Justice Department and vowing
to compel testimony from Biden aides if
they regain the House next year.
In a newly released interview with Jona-
than Karl of ABC News, Trump defended
supporters who chanted “Hang Mike
Pence” during the insurrection, saying
it was “common sense” given Pence’s
refusal to deny certification of the Elec-
toral College vote. “The people were very
angry,” Trump said. “How can you pass
on a fraudulent vote to Congress?”
What the editorials said
“The Select Committee no doubt has
partisan motives,” said The Wall Street
Journal, but Bannon “has no legal
standing to dodge a lawful subpoena.”
Trump’s claim of executive privilege is
especially specious given that Bannon left
the White House three years earlier and
was a private citizen in 2020. Congress’
institutional power to conduct investiga-
tions “needs to be vindicated”—and
Republicans who are complaining now
will feel differently when they’re
back in power.Many disturbing details have
emerged since “that terrible
day,” said The Washington Post,
including the extent of efforts to
“strong-arm” Pence and a “cascade
of warnings” of potential violence
that were ignored by the FBI and
law enforcement. But many key
questions remain. How did rioters
appear to know which Capitol
windows had not been modernized
and would be easy to breach? What
did Trump do during the “horrific
187 minutes” that passed between
when he beseeched his followers to march on the Capitol and when
he “begrudgingly” called them off? Finding answers is critical in as-
suring “that nothing like Jan. 6 will happen again.”What the columnists said
Bannon’s indictment “is a game changer” for the investigation, said
Chris Cillizza in CNN.com. The first person charged with contempt
of Congress since 1983, Bannon was hit with two counts that could
each fetch a year in prison. Attorney General Merrick Garland has
sent a strong message to other holdouts “that the stakes for noncom-
pliance are now very serious.”Garland’s pursuit of this weak case may have been “met with glee in
the media-Democrat complex,” said Andrew McCarthy in National
Review.com, but it won’t ever land Bannon in the witness chair. Even
if it did, he could simply take the Fifth. Bannon’s pointless pros-
ecution will only serve to confirm “that the Biden/Garland Justice
Department is a crude weapon of the political left.”Bannon doesn’t have a leg to stand
on legally, but “he knows exactly
what he’s doing,” said David Frum in
TheAtlantic.com. He and other Jan. 6
plotters are like right-wing versions of
the Chicago Seven, and their radical
strategy is purely political: to discredit
and undermine the “legal and constitu-
tional system” that “once bound U.S.
society”—a system Trumpists have
already badly eroded.“American democracy is entering a
strange and perilous period,” said
David Rohde in NewYorker.com. As
Bannon’s case plays out, “Americans
will have to decide whether his theatrics
are a threat to democracy, performa-
tive branding, or a mix of both.” Such
cases can take up to a year, said former
Justice Department official David
Laufman, though there’s “substantial
federal interest” in moving quickly. As
Laufman said, “What can be of greater
interest than an attack on the heart of
democracy in the United States?” Get
tyBannon: ‘We’re taking down the Biden regime.’THE WEEK November 26, 2021
4 NEWS The main stories...
Bannon charged with contempt over Jan. 6 defiance
Illustration by Fred Harper.
Cover photos from AP, Getty (2)What next?
Mark Meadows could be the next Trump as-
sociate to face contempt charges, said Nicholas
Wu in Politico.com. Trump’s former chief of staff
ignored a subpoena to give a deposition to the
Jan. 6 committee last week. Panel Chair Ben-
nie Thompson said this week he’d “reiterate
the committee’s demands” in a letter to Mead-
ows, who was Trump’s top aide at the time of
the insurrection and was with him on Jan. 6.
“We need these questions answered,” said
Thompson. Don’t expect Bannon’s indictment
to compel Meadows and other holdouts to give
in, said Jonathan Bernstein in Bloomberg.com.
Since many held government roles on Jan. 6,
they “may bet that Bannon’s case is weaker
than theirs.” They’ll probably also wait to see if
“Bannon’s refusal has costs.” Meanwhile, “the
clock is ticking,” and as Trump and his associates
continue to stonewall, a deadline hangs over the
proceedings: The Jan. 6 committee “will almost
surely be dissolved” if Republicans win back the
House a year from now.