In abrupt turn, Steve Bannon suddenly agrees to testify to Jan. 6 Committee, a week ahead of his trial

Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon has done a complete u-turn and now plans to testify before Congress’ Jan 6 committee, just days before he was scheduled to appear in federal court for a trial related to his indictment for criminal contempt of Congress.

His change of heart hinged on former President Donald Trump’s approval for Bannon to testify according to two letters that were reviewed by The New York Times.

In one of the letters, Bannon’s attorney Robert Costello wrote to Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (R-MI) to inform him that Bannon wants to testify in public.

“Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing,” he said.

However, a Democrat member of the committee told CNN on Sunday that it would be behind closed doors so it’s unclear how the committee will respond to this request as they have had hundreds of people testify out of the public eye.

A second letter reportedly addressed to Bannon from Trump himself contained written confirmation that the former president waived the executive privilege that had previously played into Bannon’s decision not to testify.

“When you first received the subpoena to testify and provide documents, I invoked executive privilege,” the former president wrote. “However, I watched how unfairly you and others have been treated, having to spend vast amounts of money on legal fees and all of the trauma you must be going through for the love of your country and out of respect for the office of the president.”

“Therefore, if you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will waive executive privilege for you, which allows for you to go in and testify truthfully and fairly, as per the request of the unselect committee of political thugs and hacks.”

Costello clarified on Sunday that “Our position about the committee remains unchanged, but President Trump wants Mr. Bannon to tell the committee the truth.”

There was intense speculation on what Bannon’s motive to testify might be and how his last-minute flip-flop might play out.


Late last month, Bannon’s attorney filed a motion requesting the trial be postponed due to the ongoing Jan. 6 hearings which he argued would make it “impossible to guarantee Mr. Bannon a fair trial in the middle of much-publicized Select Committee hearings which purport to broadcast investigative ‘findings’ on topics that are reference in the Indictment.”

“Under the circumstances, we believe that it would be erroneous to deny a requested continuance when congressional hearings create prejudicial pretrial publicity – as has been acknowledged by the Government and found to constitute good cause for a trial continuance in another pending case in this district,” Costello wrote.

Bannon will face up to 12 months in jail and a penalty of $100,000 in his federal trial which is currently set for next Monday.

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles