Jan. 6 panel may see leverage from Bannon prosecution
By Rebecca Beitsch - 11/20/21 05:00 PM EST
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to prosecute Stephen Bannon for defying a congressional subpoena could give needed leverage to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as it seeks to wrangle interviews with uncooperative aides to former President Trump.
Bannon, a former White House strategist, turned himself in to law enforcement and pleaded not guilty this week after a federal grand jury indicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.
While Bannon is pledging to fight the case as a way to protect Trump’s assertion of executive privilege, the looming penalty of two years in jail and up to $200,000 in fines could be persuasive for a number of former aides who have yet to sit down for their depositions.
“The most important thing was that the Justice Department moved forward with prosecuting Bannon because I think that will have the most profound impact on people's willingness to cooperate and follow the law, seeing that the rule of law is back and applies equally to everyone,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the committee, told reporters Thursday.
“I think it has certainly had an impact on people's willingness to cooperate, people's willingness to follow the law. I can’t itemize that for you,” he said, adding, “Certainly there are others who I think have been encouraged to cooperate by seeing that the path of destruction may lead to jail.”
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https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/582396-jan-6-panel-sees-leverage-from-bannon-prosecution
