Page 628 - Contempt News Today

It is not clear if bannon is talking about official duties. if bannon takes this to the court of law to settles these questions, they are likely to wait for the court case to wind its way through the system rather than jump in. >> is there some reason why steve bannon is the focus of the criminal referral and not the other three people who have been subpoenaed? >> that is because the other officials, who have more of a claim of executive privilege in some readings, are in negotiations with the c...

Goes after them and holds them accountable. >> should they be prosecuted by the justice department? >> i do, yes. >> white house press secretary jen psaki addressing the last part of the comments. the president supports the wrk of the committee and the independent role of the department of justice to make any decisions about prosecutions. the doj putting out a statement reiterating the department will, quote, make its own independent decisions in all prosecutions based solely on the facts and th...

Worked for the former president reportedly either avoiding getting served with a subpoena or using delaying tactics to appear. and so far, at least one, steve bannon, has defied a subpoena deadline. on the other side, you have the house select committee investigating the attack. committee says it will take its first steps infect week to try and bring criminal contempt charges against bannon. they say others who could face the same -- could face the same if they dont cooperate. and from the white...

Following the presidents comments? i know i threw a lot of questions at you, but have at it. >> thank you, alex, for those questions. i do believe steve bannon will be held in criminal contempt. you cannot simply disobey congressional subpoenas and not be held in contempt. the january 6th committee is going to vote. i expect them to vote for criminal contempt. but you raise a very good question. im going to let you know what my fear is. my fear is hes going to run out the clock. even if the depa...

The courts can and have acted much more quickly than were seeing now. in the watergate era, our subpoena for the trial tapes was issued on april 16th. it was argued in the supreme court on july 8th, and they decided on july 24th. thats only weeks. so theres no reason why a criminal contempt cant be done quickly. a grand jury can be presented in one day as soon as they get it and make the decision. they have to individually weigh whether this is right case for contempt. that is defiance of a subp...

In their favor to drag this out. the fact that the select committee has chosen to go to doj, the executive branch, and play this out -- and i understand the logic in this -- they dont want a future where this can be abused and people can be dragged into the cell underneath the capitol with inherent contempt. but i have to tell you, this is a long game now. this is not going to get resolved overnight. and everybody, including kash patel, are going to watch what happens with steve bannon. its goin...

Its got two options. one would be going to court and pursue a civil contempt. we saw how that played out with don mcgahn. this mechanism is imperfect but it may be the best option here. what it requires for congress to send a referral to the u.s. attorneys office in the district of columbia. that u.s. attorney will make a charging decision about whether to bring criminal contempt charges. its a strong signal to people who are respectful of the rule of law in this country. there is an interesting...

Frustration at the lack of cooperation from some members of the former trump administration on january 6th, although, to be fair, mark meadows and kash patel have been preliminarily cooperative. bannon has not and this repeats the playbook of the robert mueller investigation years ago. armed with a list of questions printed out by the white house and said ill only answer these and most of the questions were answered with one word, no. he is someone who, despite having a pretty famous falling out...

Come in and how much they will say, whether theyll said, whether they will not answer the questions. look, getting to your point. the concerns that the democrats have is that they could very well lose their house majority next year, the republicans take over and then this investigation is done come january 4th, 2022 in a republican majority, and they have a ton of information requests that are out there. lots of data they are trying to pore through and if steve bannon gets charged with contempt ...

Attorney cannot compel bannon to cooperate. so this is not an attempt perhaps to get more information from steve bannon unless he wants to -- the charges to be dropped and to cooperate. but this is to set an example to all of the rest of the people who have been subpoenaed by the january 6 committee saying that they are not fooling around and they will move with criminal prosecution if people do not comply. >> kimberly, lets talk about the legal as pepgts. pictures. you are a lawyer as well as a...