Rightwing media personality Steve Bannon, on trial for ghosting Congress, was a no-show on the witness stand Thursday and passed on even putting up a defense—a lame end for the guy who promised to make his criminal case the “misdemeanor from hell” for the U.S. government.
On Thursday morning, Bannon’s defense lawyers told a federal judge they would present no defense—nothing at all—to try to convince jurors that he wasn’t somehow guilty of ignoring a congressional subpoena. The Jan. 6 Committee subpoenaed Bannon last fall demanding that he turn over documents and testify about his role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results as well as the part he played in beating the proverbial war drums in the run-up to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
“You are not intending to put on any evidence to the jury?” asked U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols.
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“Correct,” said David Schoen, an attorney on Bannon’s team. “We're not putting on a defense case.”
What the Justice Department insisted would be a remarkably short trial has instead stretched nearly all this week, as prosecutors charged forward while Bannon’s defense lawyers used every opportunity to slow it down.
Jury selection was an annoying slog on Monday and Tuesday, as Bannon’s lawyers sought whatever juror they could who didn’t already have strong feelings about the fiery media personality who’s made it a personal mission to dismantle government, start a nationalist “gladiator” school in Italy, and worked on former President Donald Trump’s election campaign and in Trump's White House.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department called just two witnesses—a committee lawyer and an FBI agent—who could simply recount how Bannon never turned over records or showed up to testify. Meanwhile, his defense lawyers subjected both witnesses to a dizzying array of seemingly aimless questions about who exactly wrote the Jan. 6 Committee’s official letters to Bannon and tried to raise suspicions over the fact that a prosecutor and the committee lawyer are both members of a book club.
Thursday morning went even more slowly, as Bannon’s lawyers raised several legal arguments that the judge had previously knocked down. Jurors spent most of the day outside of the courtroom, where Schoen repeatedly argued that Bannon didn’t have to testify because, as a one-time Trump White House official, he was protected by executive privilege. Schoen steadfastly insisted that Bannon could no longer be accused of “willful default” and that the entire case should be thrown out. However, his arguments appear to have been in vain, given that the judge had previously noted that Bannon was an ex-official, Trump was no longer president, and the Supreme Court has already refused to grant Trump any semblance of executive privilege in this regard.
On Thursday afternoon, Bannon’s defense lawyers made a last-ditch effort to get the entire case tossed out, once again fighting to drag the chairman of the Jan. 6 Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), into court to testify at trial. The defense lawyers also argued, again, that the dates in the subpoena were “malleable,” pointing to the way that the committee has rescheduled meetings with some willing and helpful witnesses. But prosecutors were emphatic that the issue had already been covered at trial, when the committee lawyer who testified, Kristin Amerling, made clear that Bannon was supposed to turn over documents by Oct. 7 2021 and testify on Oct. 14, 2021—but simply decided to be a no-show.
Shortly after 2 p.m., with the jurors outside the courtroom, Schoen read aloud a statement laying out why he and fellow defense attorney Evan Corcoran advised Bannon to forgo testifying at his own trial.
“He has wanted to testify publicly in this case under oath... exactly what the true facts of the case are. However, on the advice of counsel, he has decided not to testify because he understands he would be barred in telling the true facts,” Schoen said. “At all times, he believed what the law was requiring him to do.”
The judge responded by speaking directly to Bannon, asking him to personally attest that he was making this decision “knowingly and intentionally.”
“Yes, your honor,” Bannon said, marking the first and only time he’s spoken at his own trial.
