The Bannon Trial for Steven Bannon will bring out two different criminal charges on his person for his failure to comply with the subpoenas that were issued by the January 6 Committee. The charges were laid around 10 months after the investigation concluded that Steve Bannon had, in fact, received the subpoenas from the committee. The proceedings for the trial began on Monday with the jury selection at the federal courthouse situated in Washington DC.
Close to twenty-two potential jurors have already been selected- with the 12 juries to be selected on Tuesday. The opening arguments will start soon. The polarizing ally of Trump has always been at the pinnacle of the witness list for the January 6 for House investigators. But the prosecutors of the Justice Department have stated that the trial was intended to punish Bannon for his non-compliance with the committee documents- rather than implore him to share the information.
The Bannon Trial Will Test The Mettle Of Congress
The Bannon trial is definitely going to be a major test of how much leverage Congress has and how far could they punish someone for evading a House subpoena. Bannon will be the first subpoena case to be put to trial- with the contempt case against Peter Navarro, the former White House trade adviser still in the early stages. This trial will also be carrying a lot of relevance for the House panel since the process of bringing in additional witnesses to the forum hasn’t stopped.
Interestingly, the jury selection process for the Bannon Trial didn’t involve the applicants informing the Committee about their personal opinion regarding the man. On the contrary, they were asked if they had been abreast of the events and the investigations that the January 6 Committee had gone through.