riots took the rare step of subpoenaing a former president of the united states. writing that the efforts to overturn the 2020 election was something he, quote poernly orchestrated and oversaw. committees demanding he sit for a deposition under oath as well as provide documents and communications from over a dozen allies and associates. the response what it is clear is defying the subpoena by the select committee can come a consequences. just today the president s on-again, off-again close advisor often considered the architect of the president s rise was sentenced to prison for defying the very thing the president was served with today. steve bannon was sentenced to four months in prison plus a fine of $6,500 for his refusal to comply with the house s subpoena. the washington post had new details what was in those intelligence documents seized by fbi agents at the former president s residence in mar-a-lago. the post reporting there were documents describing iran s miss
good evening. today the house select committee investigating the january 6th riots took the rare step of subpoenaing a former president of the united states. writing that the efforts to overturn the 2020 election was something th he, quote, personally orchestrated and oversaw. the committee is demanding he sit for a deposition under oath as well as provide documents and communications with more than a dozen allies and associates. the response from the president s legal team today was only to call the subpoena, quote, an unprecedented action. unclear what their next step will be. what is clear is defying the subpoena by the select committee can come a consequences. just today the president s on-again, off-again close advisor often considered the architect of the president s rise was sentenced to prison for defying the very thing the president was served with today. steve bannon was sentenced to four months in prison plus a fine of $6,500 for his refusal to comply with the hous
tyler or provided a deposition in the case of john quincy adams. one president said no. harry truman said no to the house on the american activity committee when he was subpoenaed in 1953, said i m not going to do it. he saw it as the mccarthy attempt to smear his administration, he didn t do it and did not actually proceed to find him in contempt. so you have basically two kind of presidents. you ve had some presidents who have said yes subpoenas and one who said no. jennifer, if the former president refuses to comply or tries to drag it out as you pointed out, what tools does the committee have to enforce the subpoena? doesn t seem like much. well, they don t have a lot and they certainly don t have time to use what they do have. i mean, they could go to court and seek an order forcing him to testify but there s not going to be time for that because, again, there s going to be negotiations about the timing and the scope. there s just not enough runway here for that to happen, but
end quote. do you think there s anything in u.s. history that does compare to this? no because with the exception of john tyler who joined the confederacy we ve not had a case where a former president has been alleged to have participated in an insurrection. so that alone makes this different. president trump is the fourth president to have been served a congressional subpoena. two former presidents said yes and either testified in the case of john tyler, the same john tyler or provided a deposition in the case of john quincy adams. one president said no. harry truman said no to the house on the american activity committee when he was subpoenaed in 1953, said i m not going to do it. he saw it as the mccarthy attempt to smear his administration, he didn t do it and did not actually proceed to find him in contempt. so you have basically two kind
how broad the set of documents they re looking for from the former president in addition of course to that testimony. now, we have not heard directly from trump on this, but we did hear from an opportunity representing him saying the committee was flouting norms by making this subpoena public but saying we ll review and analyze it and respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action. so it remains unclear what exactly that s going to mean. is there any reason i don t know what his options are. if the former president defied the subpoena what might happen? look, i think it means what you mean by defies. steve bannon today, if you decide you re not going to look through your documents, not going to engage, not going to attempt to give the committee anything, they they pursue this criminal referral and he was convicted and he was sentenced today. but the former president has hired these attorneys. we could see engagement behind the scenes. they could decide to take the committee