In Bipartisan Vote, Congress Finds Bannon Guilty On Contempt

It was a foregone conclusion that after the Select Committee investigating the Trump coup attempt voted unanimously to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress and recommend that the Department of Justice prosecute him, the full House would follow. What was unknown was whether or not any Republicans besides the two on the select committee would also vote against Bannon, knowing Trump would soon be screaming RINO at them. But 9 did: Adam Kinzinger (IL), Liz Cheney (WY), Anthony Gonzalez (OH), Peter Meijer (MI), Fred Upton (MI), Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA) and John Katko (NY)-- all of whom voted to impeach Trump-- plus 2 who didn't vote to impeach him: Nancy Mace (SC) and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA). The final vote was 229-202, every Democrat voting to find him in contempt.

If Bannon is found guilty he could face jail time and/or a steep fine. This evening Luke Broadwater reported that "Before the vote, Republicans argued that the investigation-- which Democrats undertook after Republicans blocked the formation of an independent, bipartisan inquiry-- was a partisan exercise devised to smear Trump and persecute his supporters for their political beliefs. On the House floor, Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and an ardent Trump supporter, accused the committee of harassing Bannon and organizers of the 'Stop the Steal' rally that led to the riot."

The question of what will happen to Mr. Bannon will now go to the Justice Department, where Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has declined to say whether he will move forward with charges.

“We’ll apply the facts in the law and make a decision, consistent with the principles of prosecution,” he told the House Judiciary Committee during an oversight hearing on Thursday.

President Biden has endorsed prosecuting those who do not cooperate with the investigation. On Thursday, he made a point of condemning the riot and its origins.

“The violent, deadly insurrection on the Capitol nine months ago — it was about white supremacy,” Mr. Biden said in a speech on Thursday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington.

Robert J. Costello, Mr. Bannon’s lawyer, informed the House committee this month that his client would not comply with its subpoena, citing Mr. Trump’s directive for his former aides and advisers to invoke immunity and refrain from turning over documents that might be protected under executive privilege.

Under federal law, any person summoned as a congressional witness who refuses to comply can face a misdemeanor charge that carries a fine of $100 to $100,000 and a jail sentence of one month to one year.

...McCarthy of California had encouraged fellow Republicans to oppose the contempt referral. He called the committee’s subpoena “invalid” and said he agreed with Bannon that a court should decide whether he should comply.

“They are using this to target their opponents,” McCarthy said of Democrats.

Meanwhile, Georgia crackpot Marjorie Traitor Greene sauntered over to the Democratic part of the chamber before the vote to pick a fight with one of the committee members, Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and with Liz Cheney (R-WY), who was talking with him. A notorious racist, and looking for the kind of attention that will get her more TV coverage on Fox and OAN, Traitor Greene started screaming about Black Lives Matter. It ended up with Greene accusing the debate of being a joke and Cheney telling Greene that she's a joke herself.

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Cheney shot back that Greene was “a joke” and that she should be focusing on Jewish space lasers, a reference to a conspiracy theory Greene previously had promoted on Facebook blaming “space lasers” controlled by a powerful Jewish family for starting wildfires in California.

“I never said that! You’re done. You’re a joke!” Greene yelled at Cheney, according to CNN. "Why don’t you go investigate something that matters to the American people?”

Greene “seemed to have some kind of ancient beef with the former chair of the House Republican Conference, Liz Cheney, over the Jewish space lasers thing or something like that,” Raskin said, summarizing the bitter exchange. “And she denied that she'd ever said that and blamed that on the mainstream media.”

Just a day earlier, Greene had railed against Cheney in an interview with The Hill after the Wyoming Republican suggested that Trump had been involved in the planning of the Capitol attack.

“Liz Cheney is a liar, and you can quote me on that,” Greene told The Hill. “She’s a liar and she’s only serving her own interests, which is to tear Trump down. She’s a liar. It’s a scam. It’s a witch hunt. It’s a joke committee, and I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.”

“She’s just jealous and she hates Trump,” Greene added. “Nobody cares about Liz Cheney. I think that’s the biggest story-- Nobody cares about Liz Cheney or their stupid committee.”

...“They just want to go on and on about the riot and then lie to everyone and call it an insurrection," Greene said.

Five people, including one Capitol Police officer, died in relation to the violent attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. More than 140 police officers were injured that day.