The far-right Steve Bannon, an ally of former US President Donald Trump, was indicted by a federal grand jury with two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena from the legislative committee investigating the assault on the Capitol last January.
This was reported by the Department of Justice in a statement, in which it specified that one of the charges refers to his refusal to appear before said committee, while the second is for not wanting to deliver documents.
An indictment for contempt of Congress can carry between 30 days and a year in prison, as well as a fine of between $ 100 and $ 1,000.
This comes after the US House of Representatives held 67-year-old Bannon in contempt on October 21. for refusing to appear before the investigative committee of the assault on the Capitol on January 6 by a mob of Trump supporters.
Said statement passed to the Department of Justice, that he had to decide whether to go ahead with the process. During this time, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has been the target of all kinds of political pressure to indict Bannon through the courts after the decision of Congress.
In the note, Garland stressed that from the first day in office he is committed to “show the American people, both in word and deed, that the Department (of Justice) adheres to compliance with the law, follows the facts and the legislation, and seeks equal justice. “At the moment, a date for a hearing has not yet been set about this case in federal court for the District of Columbia.
The District Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew M. Graves, recalled in the text that the committee that investigates the assault on the Capitol issued on September 23 a subpoena for Bannon to appear to testify and deliver documents, which was rejected by him.
In its subpoena, the legislative committee detailed that it believes that Bannon has information in his possession relevant to understanding what happened on January 6. Bannon he excused himself in his day for not appearing before the committee behind a lawsuit filed by Trump to prevent certain documents related to the assault on the Capitol from seeing the light, asking the committee to postpone his appearance until Justice failed, which he rejected.
A criminal case against Bannon it could take years to be resolved in court. According to the television network CNN, these types of cases for contempt of Congress have historically been disproved by juries compassionate towards the accused and by appeals.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
