(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- If Steve Bannon decides to defy a subpoena that was issued to him about the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol building, he’ll be “completely exposed” to being arrested.
This week, Jamie Raskin, a representative from Maryland, made those comments about Bannon, who served as the chief strategist for the White House under former President Donald Trump. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack recently issued Bannon a subpoena to appear before them.
Bannon’s former boss has invoked executive privilege that would prevent any of his former aides from having to testify before the committee. That’s a power that presidents hold that would bar all communications from the president from being shared with members of Congress.
Because of Trump’s decision, Bannon came out and said he wouldn’t cooperate with any subpoenas issued by the committee. There was a deadline of last Thursday for Bannon to hand over any documents that related to the January 6 attacks.
Raskin, one of the Democratic members of the House who is sitting on the House Select Committee, said executive privilege doesn’t apply to Bannon in this case, though. He claims that because Bannon was fired from his spot before he consulted Trump about the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing “Stop the Steal” rally held January 6, he isn’t included in executive privilege.
Generally speaking, executive privilege only applies to people who communicated with a president while they were working within the White House or the administration.
In an interview he conducted with MSNBC on Monday, Raskin said:
“[Bannon] wasn’t working for the executive branch. So, even if you assume hypothetically that Donald Trump has some kind of executive privilege, which is extremely dubious in itself, how could that extend to Steve Bannon? So, he’s completely exposed.”
Bannon served in his position of chief strategist for the White House and senior counselor to Trump between January of 2017 until the day he was fired on August 18 of that year.
Raskin’s argument is that Bannon would only have enjoyed executive privilege during that time period — not any time before or after. And it seems he’s prepared to push forward with all legal tools at his disposal if Bannon doesn’t comply with the subpoena.
He even issued a veiled threat, it seemed, to Bannon during the interview with MSNBC. He mentioned Susan McDougal, who served 18 months in jail for refusing to comply with a subpoena for the congressional Whitewater investigation against Bill Clinton. She was a business associate of both the then-president and his wife, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Hypothetically, Raskin asked:
“Does the law only apply against Democrats? I don’t think so.”
It’s alleged that Bannon convinced his former boss to hold a rally in Washington, D.C., on January 6, according to a recent book “Peril,” written by Washington Post journalists Robert Costa and Bob Woodward.
As a result, the House Select Committee wants to know what role Trump and his other allies could’ve played in the attacks at the U.S. Capitol building that day.
