There has always been plenty of talk about what would happen should a congressional subpoena ever be completely ignored, and it appears as though we may get a little insight in the coming days.
That’s because the Democrats who have been working on the select committee involving the incidents on January 6th are now laying down the law when it comes to witnesses who simply blow them off.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening unanimously approved a criminal contempt report against Steve Bannon, an ally of former President Donald Trump’s, for defying a subpoena from the panel.
The vote sends the measure to the full House for a planned vote Thursday. If the chamber approves it, the referral would be sent on to federal law enforcement for potential charges.
The nine-member committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, was united in their scathing response to Bannon’s refusal to come before the panel. Bannon no-showed for a deposition that was sought last Thursday, and did not turn over documents for another deadline a week earlier.
And the Democrats sure seem to be taking this sort of action seriously.
“Mr. Bannon will comply with our investigation or he will face the consequences,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in prepared remarks to open a meeting to take up the contempt report.
“Maybe he’s willing to be a martyr to the disgraceful cause of whitewashing what happened on January 6th — of demonstrating his complete loyalty to the former President,” Thompson added. “So I want other witnesses to understand something very plainly: If you’re thinking of following the path Mr. Bannon has gone down, you’re on notice that this is what you’ll face.”
Bannon had earlier suggested that he couldn’t testify in good face until a lawyer signed off on the possibility of executive privilege coming into play.
