DOJ isn't letting the case against Bannon drop after he finally agrees to testify to congress

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
·
Jul 10, 2022
New: Justice Dept says Trump attorney Justin Clark told them on June 29 that Trump “never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials” and Bannon’s lawyer “misrepresented to the committee what the former president’s counsel had told the defendant.”

Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
·
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DOJ: Timing of Bannon’s reversal suggests the only thing that has changed since he refused to comply with the subpoena is that he is finally about to face the consequences of his actions — and fact that he hasn’t produced docs shows he’s insincere. https://documentcloud.org/documents/22083076-motion-in-limine-to-exclude-evidence-or-argument-relating-to-the-defendants-eleventh-hour-assertion-that-he-is-willing-to-testify…
9:45 PM · Jul 10, 2022

[elleng]

1. No sh*t, sherlock!!!

[Nevilledog]

2. You knew it, I knew it. Media acted like they didn't know it.

Link goes to DOJ's Motion in limine to preclude this bullshit offer to testify

[Nevilledog]

3. More

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Tweet text:

Helen Kennedy 🌻
@HelenKennedy
·
Jul 10, 2022
DOJ isn’t letting the case against Bannon drop after he finally agrees to testify to congress one week before his contempt trial starts.
“The criminal contempt statute is not intended to procure compliance; it is intended to punish past noncompliance.”

courtlistener.com
In Limine – #105 in United States v. BANNON (D.D.C., 1:21-cr-00670) – CourtListener.com
In Limine

Helen Kennedy 🌻
@HelenKennedy
·
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“His continued failure to comply with the subpoena’s document demand while claiming he now will testify suggests his actions are little more than an attempt to change the optics of his contempt on the eve of trial, not an actual effort at compliance.”
9:48 PM · Jul 10, 2022

[kentuck]

4. What is Bannon's game ??

I think this explains it well:

“The criminal contempt statute is not intended to procure compliance; it is intended to punish past noncompliance.”

They puzzling part is how he talked Donald Trump into going along with his scheme when both of them knew there was no "executive privilege" involved and there never was?

[Nevilledog]

5. It's more than that. Trump says Bannon is lying about him saying there was any privilege

Bannon knew about the interview of Clark on June 29th where Clark said Trump didn't claim any privilege for Bannon. That whole thing about Bannon saying he wouldn't testify because trump said no was a lie.

With the 11th hour offer to comply, Bannon wanted to either get his trial delayed, get it dismissed because he was testifying, or argue to a jury that he relied on trump saying he couldn't testify due to privilege, but now that trump "waived" the nonexistent privilege he was happy to testify.

It was all a lie. His attorney should be disbarred for presenting this lie.

[kentuck]

7. It sounds like they are attempting to defraud the court?

Of course, Bannon wants to stay out of jail, number one.

I think it best to let the court have their say before they discuss anything with Bannon.

He cannot be trusted. He's a real snake in the grass.

[Nevilledog]

8. I would think DOJ's Motion will put a complete halt to anything involving Bannon

[Nevilledog]

6. emptywheel's take

Link to tweet

https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/07/11/trumps-attorney-debunked-trumps-claim-to-have-invoked-executive-privilege-two-weeks-ago/

*snip*


In a motion in limine from the government seeking to exclude Bannon’s latest manufactured stunt from his trial, DOJ revealed that a surprise witness identified in a recent filing was in fact Trump’s lawyer, Justin Clark, and Clark confirmed much of what I had laid out in my post.

On June 29, 2022, former President Donald Trump’s attorney, who sent the letter on which the Defendant claimed his noncompliance was based, confirmed what his correspondence has already established: that the former President never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials; that the former President’s counsel never asked or was asked to attend the Defendant’s deposition before the Select Committee; that the Defendant’s attorney misrepresented to the Committee what the former President’s counsel had told the Defendant’s attorney; and that the former President’s counsel made clear to the Defendant’s attorney that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance.3 Even the Defendant’s claim that the reason he is now willing to testify is because the former President is “waiving” executive privilege is subject to question given all of the evidence and law that has been addressed in this case, of which he must be aware, demonstrating that executive privilege never provided a basis for total noncompliance in the first place.

3 The Government provided an FBI report of the interview in which the attorney made these statements to the Defendant on June 30, 2022, the day after the interview was conducted. [my emphasis]

In other words, Justin Clark has testified (and may, at Bannon’s trial) that what Trump has gotten a bunch of credulous journalists reporting as fact is a lie.

Trump’s own attorney says Trump is lying (and by association, the journalists got badly duped).

DOJ’s filing says a number of other things I’ve been saying two. First, if Bannon had really changed his mind about cooperating, he would have already turned over documents.

First, the Defendant apparently has not told the Committee he wishes to provide documents responsive to the subpoena, so his eleventh-hour efforts do nothing to begin to cure his failure to produce records.

*snip*

[slightlv]

9. I'm running into this VERY late into the day

and I'm not quite understanding this... does this mean Bannon is still heading to the courtroom (and thus, to jail) for non-compliance?

[Cheezoholic]

10. Oh please, if there is a higher power

please let me cross paths with this putrid skank of flesh. Even if it would cost me my life because of some sort of evil redneck absorption Blob like death monster I will gladly give it if I get the chance to pile drive my fist of justice directly between the eyes of this scumbag slime-ball chickenshit fascist traitor and spit on his swastika shaped neurons while he pleas for forgiveness. Out of all of this its between him and Flynn that I despise the most. There is not a slow enough painful death yet invented deserving of those two traitorous fucks.

[BigmanPigman]

12. I can't decide which one of those two

traitors I hate more. They need to be bankrupted and sent to prison for life. Flynn should be court marshalled!

[tishaLA]

11. Does this partially or wholly explain Clark leaving as his lawyer?