On Thursday the House voted to hold Steve Bannon, top advisor to former-President Trump, in criminal contempt for defying a subpoena to testify. The chamber voted 229-202 in favor of the resolution, which will refer a criminal contempt charge to the Justice Department. Nine Republicans voted with Democrats — Reps. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Nancy Mace, Fred Upton, Peter Meijer, John Katko, Brian Fitzpatrick, Anthony Gonzalez and Jaime Herrera Beutler. The Justice Department has full, independent authority to decide whether to enforce the prosecution.
The vote comes two days after the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol also decided to hold Bannon in contempt. Bannon ignored deadlines to produce documents related to his discussions with Trump in the days before the violent insurrection in which radical Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as lawmakers were voting to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. According to subpoena documents, Bannon said on his radio show on Jan. 5 that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” He also allegedly spoke with Trump on Dec. 30 and urged him to focus on Jan. 6.
Trump previously instructed Bannon and other fellow aides — former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Daniel Scavino and former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel — to defy subpoenas from the select committee, citing executive privilege.
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