He was supposed to testify before Congress about the storming of the Capitol - but ignored the subpoena. Now a court finds former Trump adviser Steve Bannon guilty. He could go to jail for that.
US right-wing populist and former presidential adviser Steve Bannon has been found guilty of contempt of Congress in a federal court. A jury in the capital Washington DC found the former chief strategist of former President Donald Trump guilty. According to the US broadcaster NPR, the sentence against Bannon is to be announced on October 21.
Bannon, 68, ignored a January 6, 2021 subpoena from the parliamentary inquiry into the Capitol storming. In addition, he had not provided the requested documents. In November he was indicted for this. He was found guilty on both counts.
The trial only started on Monday. Bannon's attorney had argued in vain at the trial that his client did not knowingly resist the subpoena. Rather, the date of the survey was "the subject of ongoing discussions".
The Washington Post reported that Bannon faced between 30 days and a year in prison on both counts. However, no one has been imprisoned for contempt of Congress since the Cold War. A fine is also possible. The broadcaster CNN rated the conviction as a "victory" for the investigative committee, which continues to seek the cooperation of unwilling witnesses in its investigations.
The investigative committee is working on the events surrounding the storming of the seat of the US Parliament. Trump attacked the body in a message on his online network Truth Social as a "mock court" and accused it of being "corrupt and highly partisan".
The U-Committee believes Bannon is a key witness. According to the panel, the right-wing populist spoke to Trump the day before the storming. In his own podcast, Bannon also predicted at the time that "hell will break out". Radical Trump supporters then stormed Congress when the election victory of Trump's challenger Joe Biden was to be officially confirmed.
Bannon had been a central figure in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. After his election victory, Bannon then became chief strategist in the White House. Trump fired him in August 2017.
