Bannon Is Using an FBI Interview to Undermine the Jan. 6 Panel
Source: Daily Beast
WHIPLASH
Bannon Is Using an FBI Interview to Undermine the Jan. 6 Panel
Steve Bannon is trying to use the Department of Justice’s strategy against the Jan. 6 committee to argue it has no authority to subpoena him.
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Updated May. 14, 2022 2:43AM ET / Published May. 13, 2022 4:49AM ET
The Justice Department has already weaponized informal discussions with Steve Bannon’s lawyer to turn him into a witness against his own client. But now, the right-wing provocateur is trying to seize on those same FBI interviews to turn the tables on the Jan. 6 Committee.
This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) chimed in on the ongoing criminal case against Bannon for “contempt of Congress,” with lawyers asking for permission to make some necessary clarifications in front of the federal judge overseeing Bannon’s case. Pelosi wanted to defend the legitimacy of the committee’s congressional subpoena that started this whole mess—the one Bannon ignored by refusing to appear before the panel and answer questions about his role in the insurrection last year.
The committee is once again in an argument over whether it can legally issue subpoenas, as the sign-off of a ranking member is required for congressional subpoena power, and Bannon’s lawyers argue that vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), doesn’t count because it was Democrats, not Republicans, who gave her that position.
The top attorney for the House of Representatives has already written a legal paper outlining how Cheney qualifies as the ranking member.
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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-is-using-an-fbi-interview-to-undermine-the-jan-6-panel
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