(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) With House Democrats’ Jan. 6 witch-hunt branching out this week in the form of Steve Bannon’s contempt show trial, the Trump campaign’s one-time chief strategist railed against the media and its attempts to make him appear guilty before the trial even began, the Post Millennial reported.
Stopping to talk to a crowd of people on the way to the second day of his trial, Bannon slammed J6 Committee Democrats, who are content to snipe at him from a distance but have only sent aides to attend his trial.
“I challenge [committee chair] Bennie Thompson today to have the courage to come to this courthouse,” Bannon said.
He earlier called Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, “gutless” and “an absolute disgrace.”
Bannon also attacked Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.; and Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
“If he is going to [charge] somebody with a crime, he’s got to be man enough to show up here or send somebody like Shifty Schiff or Fang–Fang Swalwell. Or Liz Cheney,” Bannon said. “Send somebody on the committee who has the guts to come here and accuse somebody of a crime!”
Bannon is on trial for contempt of Congress after failing to meet the committee’s demands in October 2021 that he provide open access to any number of documents.
According to Bannon, the documents in question were still protected under former President Donald Trump’s executive privilege, although the Supreme Court has since adjudicated that Congress has the ability to overrule Trump’s assertion of it.
Bannon was apparently in communication with the J6 Committee the entire time, stating clearly that he would provide access to the documents as soon as it was legally permissible.
Per lawyer David Freiheit, the prosecution has very little to stand on in this instance, but since the trial is politically motivated, Bannon may, nonetheless, be found guilty in the end.
“The importance of this trial is going to be whether or not one continues to view the prosecutorial system as one that pursues justice or one that pursues politics,” he said.
