Washington: US House has voted against former President Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, accusing him of contempt of Congress over his refusal to cooperate with the investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot.
The resolution was adopted in a largely party-line vote of 229-202, with only nine Republicans joining all Democrats in approving it. It came two days after the House special committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot unanimously voted to hold Bannon, who defied the committee’s subpoena and refused to appear for a deposition in contempt of Congress.
According to the report released on Monday recommending that the Household Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress, the special committee cited Bannon’s remarks made on his radio show on January 5 – when he said all hell is going to break loose tomorrow as evidence that he had some foreknowledge about extreme events that would occur the next day.
House Republican leadership sent out a statement in the lead up to Thursday’s vote rallying against the contempt resolution, saying Congress has no authority to conduct the January 6 investigation for a legislative purpose, nor does its oversight authority include law enforcement powers.
Liz Cheney, vice chairwoman of the special committee in her remarks during the floor debate over the resolution criticized her fellow Republican members who opposed the measure for seeming to have forgotten the danger of the moment, the assault on the Constitution, the assault on our Congress.
The House vote will set up a referral to the Justice Department, which will have to decide whether Bannon, one of the central figures targeted by the special committee in its probe, should be prosecuted.
The Department of Justice will do what it always does in such circumstances. We’ll apply the facts and the law and make a decision consistent with the principles of prosecution,” Garland said when asked by lawmakers about referrals related to the January 6 probe. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, has told the special committee through his attorney that he won’t cooperate with the investigators until the dispute is settled about Trump’s invocation of executive privilege to block certain documents sought by the committee.
Contempt of Congress is a crime that can result in the person convicted being fined and sentenced to between one and 12 months in jail, but precedents of such litigations are very rare and proven notoriously difficult to succeed. Historically, contempt of Congress prosecutions oftentimes ended up being appealed or concluded with the defendant being acquitted. The last time such a case took place was in 1983 against an official in the Ronald Reagan administration.