When Steve Bannon refused to provide documents and testimony to the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, justice moved pretty quickly, at first.
September 23, 2021: the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenas Steve Bannon, ordering him to appear on October 14. He does not.
October 19, 2021: the January 6 Select Committee votes unanimously to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt.
October 21, 2021: the U.S. House of Representatives approves the contempt resolution by a vote of 229-202, with only nine Republicans voting in the affirmative.
November 12, 2021: Bannon is indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of not providing documents and one count of not testifying.
November 15, 2021: Bannon surrenders to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He pleads not guilty and is released without bail.
But then there was a long break. His trial did not commence until July 18, 2022. Since Bannon had no actual defense for his non-compliance with Congress, he did not testify and called no witnesses. He was convicted on July 22, 2022, after which there was another long break.
It wasn’t until October 21, 2022 that Bannon was sentenced to four months in federal prison and fined $6,500. All totaled, it took about one year from the congressional contempt referral to the Department of Justice to the date of sentencing, and that is perhaps not so bad.
But when Bannon finally enters a prison cell on Monday, July 1, 2024, it will have been more than 23 months since he was convicted, It will be 30 months since he was indicted, and 33 months since he declined to comply with a congressional subpoena. This is far too long of a timeline for someone who never had a shred of legal argument for his non-compliance.
I know Congress is partisan and hearings can be complete bullshit exercises. People get hauled up to Congress all the time just so they can be used as a pawn in some game. But Congress has very serious hearings too, which actually inform the laws they pass. It cannot have people refusing to comply with its subpoenas without consequence. It’s not only that sometimes justice delayed is justice denied, but also policy delayed is policy denied. The response to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol Building necessarily required both accountability and policies to prevent future recurrences. Bannon’s documents and testimony were needed for both, and Congress had to go forward without his cooperation. This also warped the final report of what actually occurred leading up the the January 6 attack, because Bannon played a central role in inciting and organizing the riot with the president.
Everyone is entitled to time to prepare a defense and the the right of appeal, but I think congressional contempt cases should receive more priority treatment because we need a clearly and more forceful deterrent to people simply refusing to comply with subpoenas. Bannon should have been in prison for contempt two or three years ago, but instead he spent his time making a fortune off the credentials he received from Trump’s fans for his criminal behavior. That’s not much of a disincentive for future non-compliers.
Certainly Bannon enjoyed considerations and grace that precious few in this country are able to enjoy. What happened with Bannon is now the basic recipe for every high profile follower of Trump who is willing to stretch our justice system to its limits by using every available means to first, delay the adjudication process. Second, if found guilty, maximize the appeal process to what seems like a limitless time frame; taking every appeal possible all the way to the Supreme Court, and using every specious argument their lawyers can come up with to grind down the whole legal process. Third, delay the sentencing process by every legal maneuver available. Then, when sentenced, drag the serving of their sentence out by arguing for special considerations and exceptions due to claims of inconvenience to their own personal circumstances.
The right wing has managed to carve out their own special legal process. It’s one used only by them, and is apparently within the procedural bounds that are available. All one needs is the money to undertake and support the whole process, which every high profile winger always has simply because their tribe has a massive funding network whose sole purpose is to defeat the justice system at all costs.
Our justice system is running on fumes right now, and we aren’t too damn far away from the wheels just coming off the car and the engine seizing up. A Trump win would be the death knell for it, but even if he loses, the continual stressing of it, which is only going to get worse going into the future, is taking a huge toll. There are no guarantees it is going to survive this unprecedented assault. With the entirety of the GOP now on board with throwing out our entire constitutional system and vesting Trump with ultimate authority over everything, should he win, it would seem the odds are higher than they have ever been that we are headed over the falls. Most certainly, the waters we are in are largely uncharted in our history.