Steve Bannon Strikes Back Hard in Fight Again Contempt of Congress Charges – Opinion

Steve Bannon is facing two contempt of Congress charges. He was instrumental in bringing Donald Trump to power. The January 6th committee targeted Bannon because he refused to give evidence and produce documents. Joe Biden’s DOJ eventually moved forward with prosecution after the committee recommended charges.

This contrasts sharply with the treatment of Eric Holder, Louise Lerner and others who were both held in contempt by Congress during the Obama presidency. Because the justice system in America is clearly two-tiered, neither was actually ever charged with any crime.

Bannon isn’t going down without a fight, though. CNN reports that he has issued subpoenas to his team for several Democrats including Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and others.

Steve Bannon, set to go to trial next month for defying a congressional subpoena, has subpoenaed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection as he builds his defense…

…Last week, Bannon’s legal team subpoenaed 16 lawmakers and congressional staffers to testify at the July trial and produce documents, according to one of Bannon’s attorneys and copies of the subpoenas provided to CNN. All nine members of the Select Committee, three staffers from the committee and the General Counsel of the House of Representatives Douglas Letter were subject to the subpoenas. Bannon subpoenaed the House Democratic leadership as well, which included Pelosi and House Majority Leader StenyHoyer, as well, Rep. Jim Clyburn.

CNN found a legal “expert” to comment on the move, and he supposes that it’ll be hard for Bannon to compel the testimony of the Congressional members because of the Speech and Debate clause. Whether that’s actually true, I’m not sure, and I won’t claim to have an answer. Obviously, mainstream media outlets can find “experts” to tell them anything they want to hear.

Still, given that Bannon’s defense will likely rest on whether Pelosi and Hoyer followed proper procedure in setting up the committee, this might be a situation where they may be forced to appear. The subject at hand isn’t about anything the congressional members in question said. Rather, it’s about whether Bannon can be held in contempt of a committee that may be illegal as currently constituted.

To my mind, this whole thing is laughable. Contempt of Congress is never enforced, but suddenly, because it’s a Trump associate, the DOJ is going to go hard? That strikes me as blatantly political, and as I noted earlier, it’s more evidence that the justice system is two-tiered. You have the freedom to do almost anything if your status is that of a Democrat, or even an elite. If you are a Republican, you’ll not only get charged in situations no one else would be charged but you’ll likely be found guilty because of the DC jury pool (a city that voted 92.5 percent for Joe Biden).

Do we really want a system where political leanings dictate whether you’ll end up spending thousands of dollars in court defending yourself? Worse, you might end up in prison. Unfortunately, far too many on the left are comfortable with that, being so sure that the alligator won’t eat them. They may be right. But one day, the Republicans will take over. Payback must be quick when that happens.