Trump-appointed federal Judge Carl Nichols slapped down ex-White House strategist Steve Bannon’s request to put off his next court appearance on contempt of Congress charges until January—even as he also declined the prosecution’s request that he set dates for a trial. Bannon phoned in his appearance in Nichols’ D.C. courtroom on Thursday, a day after he pleaded not guilty to allegations he illegally refused to cooperate with the House committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. His attorney, M. Evan Corcoran, argued that the court should make public a broad swath of unspecified documents that he asserted spoke to the committee’s “authority.”
Citing the need to collect these documents, the COVID-19 pandemic, the backlog of Jan. 6-related prosecutions, and the civil suit ex-President Donald Trump brought against Jan. 6 committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Corcoran argued that the court should kick the next court appearance into early 2022. The Department of Justice’s team argued that the extensive discovery the Bannon team sought would be “a waste of everyone’s time.” Nichols sided with neither, and set a status hearing for Dec. 7.
Bannon was indicted last week for ignoring a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. Like many former Trump aides sought for questioning about their role in events that led to the bloody attack on Congress, the MAGA mastermind has pointed to the ex-president’s claims of executive privilege.
