Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to former US President Donald Trump, turned himself into the FBI on Monday to face the primary prison prices handed down amid a congressional probe of the lethal Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol for refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
Speaking to his supporters, Bannon seemed immediately into the digital camera that was live-streaming on the social media web site GETTR and urged them to stay centered.
“We’re taking down the Biden regime,” Bannon mentioned, wearing three black shirts and a inexperienced coat. “I want you guys to stay focused. … This is all noise.”
A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Bannon on one depend of contempt of Congress for refusing to look for a deposition and a second depend for refusing to provide paperwork. Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor punishable by as much as one yr in jail and a most high quality of $1,000, the Justice Department mentioned.
Bannon, 67, is predicted to make his preliminary look in federal court docket in a while Monday.
Bannon is considered one of greater than 30 folks near the Republican former president who’ve been ordered by the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee to testify about what occurred within the run-up to Jan. 6, when hundreds of individuals stormed the Capitol constructing in an try to forestall formal congressional certification of Trump’s election loss to President Joe Biden.
House investigators hope the motion in opposition to Bannon will encourage different witnesses, akin to former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to testify. Bannon has refused, citing Trump’s insistence – already rejected by one decide – that he has a proper to maintain the requested materials confidential below a authorized doctrine known as govt privilege.
US Representative Adam Schiff, Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Jan. 6 panel, mentioned he believed Bannon’s indictment on two counts of “contempt of Congress” would sway others to drop their defiance.
“It will have a very strong focusing effect on their decision-making,” Schiff informed NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
