The House committee voted unanimously to hold former Donald Trump White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress on Tuesday for the Capitol insurrection on Jan 6. Bannon was found in defiance of the subpoena.
“We believe Mr. Bannon has information relevant to our probe, and we’ll use the tools at our disposal to get that information,” Chairman Bennie Thompson said ahead of the vote. “I expect that the House will quickly adopt this referral to the Justice Department and that the U.S. Attorney will do his duty and prosecute Mr. Bannon for criminal contempt of Congress.”
CBS reported Republican representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger (Illinois), voted in favor of holding Bannon in criminal contempt.
Cheney also spoke before the vote, arguing that the executive privilege arguments raised to “reveal one thing…they suggest that President Trump was personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6. And we will get to the bottom of that.”
Cheney said there is no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to overturn the election — “You know that the Dominion voting machines were not corrupted by a foreign power. You know those claims are false. Yet President Trump repeats them almost daily. He has now urged Republicans not to vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections. This is a prescription for national self-destruction.”
Bannon was ordered to appear last week but was counseled not to testify. His case would be the first time an individual was charged with criminal contempt of Congress since 1983. Rita M. Lavelle, a former Federal environmental official, was found not guilty of contempt of Congress after two days of testimony about her failure to appear at a Congressional subcommittee hearing.
Share your thoughts on this story and other news stories on Christian News Journal’s Facebook page here.
For more news and stories of the day from Christian News Journal, click here.
—By CNJ Staff