Steve Bannon Agrees to Cooperate with January 6 Committee after Trump Waives Executive-Privilege Claim
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Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Trump who is awaiting trial on charges of contempt of Congress, has agreed to cooperate with the January 6 committee.
Bannon wrote in an email to the panel, first obtained by the Guardian, that he was open to appearing for a public hearing after receiving a letter from Trump waiving his executive privilege. The email restated that Bannon had felt obligated to refuse the original congressional subpoena from the committee because Trump had claimed executive privilege over his testimony.
“When you first received the Subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked Executive Privilege. However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees, and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your Country, and out of respect for the Office of the President,” Trump said in the letter to Bannon.
Some argued that Trump’s executive privilege declaration didn’t apply to Bannon, who was not a White House employee, and contradicted a Supreme Court ruling that a current president’s waiver for executive privilege overrides a former president’s claim of it.
“If you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will waive Executive Privilege for you, which allows you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly,” Trump said in giving his blessing to Bannon.
Democratic committee member and congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (Calif.) remarked on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that she believes the panel will arrange a meeting with Bannon.
“I expect that we will be hearing from him,” Lofgren said. “And there are many questions that we have for him.”
However, she expressed doubt that the testimony would delivered via a public hearing, which can be very extensive, per Bannon’s wishes since the committee usually does depositions.
“This goes on for hour after hour after hour. We want to get all our questions answered, and you can’t do that in a live format,” she said.
“While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed,” Bannon attorney Bob Costello confirmed in a letter to the committee. “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
The panel is likely to probe Bannon about his December 2020 conversations with Trump in the lead-up to the certification of the presidential election results. Bannon will also likely be scrutinized for any potential involvement in the January 6 riot, specifically the comments he made on a podcast the day before on January 5 that “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
