The Supreme Court took a break from giving President Donald Trump nearly everything he wants to give his former adviser Steve Bannon what he wants: to make his conviction for defying a congressional subpoena disappear.
On Monday, the nation’s highest court vacated the judgment against Bannon and sent the matter back down to the lower court for “further consideration in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Oh yeah, that part—the pending motion to dismiss the indictment.
Bannon had a pretty big assist here: Trump’s brazenly corrupt Department of Justice, which helpfully filed a brief at the Supreme Court saying that the government had determined “in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice” and that it was moving the district court to vacate the judgment and dismiss the indictment with prejudice.
Now, we all know full well that the reason Bannon’s conviction was vacated is that the Trump administration is undoing all the consequences his minions ever suffered from their Jan. 6 insurrection jamboree. However, even this administration can’t just say that, so the fig leaf here is that Bannon is just a widdle guy who was following his attorney’s advice and genuinely believed the things the Jan. 6 committee sought were protected by executive privilege.
Sure, the court didn’t let Bannon use that defense at trial, perhaps in part because Bannon stopped working for the White House in 2017. Executive privilege generally doesn’t apply to people who don’t work for the executive branch and haven’t for years. Bannon was just a private citizen when he tipped off his podcast listeners on Jan. 5, 2021, that “hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
Wow. Can’t see why Congress, in investigating the events of Jan. 6, might have wanted to subpoena the guy who seemed to have advance knowledge of it. Such overreach!
According to Bannon’s lawyer, the former adviser’s absurd belief that executive privilege is basically infinite meant that Bannon “didn’t ignore the subpoena” from Congress when he, well, ignored the subpoena from Congress. It’s a crime to “willfully” ignore a subpoena, but since Bannon, in his little heart of hearts, didn’t believe he had to comply, it couldn’t be a crime.
Related | Why Republicans will regret forcing the Clintons to testify
This is, of course, not really what “willfully” means in this context, and it’s a theory that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals roundly rejected when Bannon tried it there.
It’s also a theory that somewhat flies in the face of forcing Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify before the House Oversight Committee about former Trump friend and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. If executive privilege extends to a random dude who hadn’t worked with Trump for four years, it would certainly stretch to cover former presidents—and why couldn’t Bill and Hillary simply say that they genuinely believed they didn’t have to appear?
Of course, Bannon isn’t the only J6er being rewarded by Trump. His mass pardons of those violent insurrectionists were really just the start. Now, it’s treat time, with your tax dollars.
The DOJ crafted a sham “settlement” to justify giving Ashli Babbit’s family $5 million after she was shot and killed while trying to break into the House Speaker’s Lobby on Jan. 6, and just did another one with former national security adviser Michael Flynn that netted him a cool $1.2 million.
Anyone want to lay odds on how long it takes before Bannon walks away with seven figures as well?
Related | Trump pardoned Michael Flynn—and now you’re paying him $1.2 million
