A federal prosecutor told jurors former Trump advisor Steve Bannon decided he was 'above the law,’ as his criminal contempt case for defying a congressional subpoena over the Jan. 6 Capitol riot began, following a jury selection https://t.co/OZVWzMpxaO pic.twitter.com/0ZYBHQVUWE
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 20, 2022
Yes, I had intended to post this yesterday, but {waves hand} so much news. Useful background reading:
A federal judge has again denied a request from Steve Bannon to delay his criminal contempt trial. The judge said he was confident a fair and impartial jury could be seated despite extensive media coverage of the onetime adviser to Donald Trump. https://t.co/BBYXZDcmBL
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 14, 2022
Took some looking, though…
…and then there's folks like @eyokley. https://t.co/9SSm6fgtdW pic.twitter.com/UuwaRLN3xS
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) July 19, 2022
After a long day of hearing exactly what fellow D.C. residents thought of him, Steve Bannon thanked potential jurors in his contempt of Congress trial for being “truthful and blunt.”
Many did not hold back on speaking their mind about the Trump ally who once served as a White House strategist.
One person said he wouldn’t be inclined to believe anything Bannon said because of who he’s associated with. Another who wasn’t selected for the jury recalled comments he had read in coverage of pretrial hearings, saying he didn’t know “what the defense would be.”…
Another individual, a retiree, said it would be a “challenge” to give a fair shake to a man who promoted the “lie that the election was stolen.”
“I do believe he’s guilty,” said the man, who said he’d been following news of the Jan. 6 committee closely, and that it was “preposterous” for Bannon to say he was going to turn this case into the “misdemeanor from hell.”
Eventually, the field was narrowed to 22 potential jurors following a grueling day of questioning and objections from the defense and prosecution. Each side will get to strike several of the qualified jurors on Tuesday, and 14 jurors will hear the case — 12 jurors and two alternates.
The nearly two-dozen qualified jurors mostly work outside of politics, and lead lives that aren’t consumed by political news. Among those in the final 22: a man who worked for an appliance company; a contractor for the city’s Covid testing program; a retired research director who listens to NPR and watches both PBS and Fox News; a technician at Georgetown University Hospital; an employee for a non-profit legal aid group; a D.C. Parks & Recreation worker; a driver who transports special needs students; a NASA photographer; an arts dealer; and a film festival juror…
Bannon was indicted last year after he refused to answer questions from the Jan. 6 committee. He unsuccessfully sought to delay the trial twice, arguing, in part, that there was too much pretrial publicity around the case, including the committee’s televised hearings. Last week, the committee presented evidence that Trump talked to Bannon on the phone twice on Jan. 5, the same day Bannon told his podcast audience “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”…
Bannon, who had stonewalled the committee since October, had a last-minute change of heart this month as he sought to delay the trial, a decision his lawyer attributed to a letter from Trump that waived a purported claim of executive privilege. The Justice Department maintains that Bannon’s offer to testify was nothing more than a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.”
Pretrial hearings largely did not go Bannon’s way, and Nichols knocked out several potential defenses Bannon’s team had raised, leading his lawyer to ask the judge, “What is the point of going to trial here if there are no defenses?”
After the jury is seated on Tuesday, Bannon’s attorneys will likely lay out which of the limited defenses they intend to pursue.
Bonus reading: “Facing trial, Bannon vows to go ‘medieval,’ but judge says meh”
Politico:
… Bannon has repeatedly inveighed against the criminal case, vowing to make it “the misdemeanor from hell” for the White House and Justice Department, and he has vowed to punish Democrats for their roles leading to his prosecution for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol. Bannon has contended that his contacts with former President Donald Trump rendered him entirely immune from subpoena, a position the Jan. 6 committee and the Justice Department have argued is baseless…
The impending seating of a jury guarantees a high-profile trial for one of the Jan. 6 committee’s most significant holdouts. Bannon, who received a presidential pardon from Trump for unrelated conduct, was repeatedly in contact with Trump in the days and weeks preceding Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol and disrupted the transition of power, battering through police lines and sending lawmakers fleeing. Bannon was involved in a so-called war room at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., where Trump allies oversaw a strategy to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election during a joint session of Congress that day.
The select committee subpoenaed Bannon last September, and the House held him in contempt of Congress a month later. The Justice Department charged him with two counts of contempt of Congress in early November: one for defying demands for documents, the other for refusing to testify. Each count carries a maximum of a year in prison…
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse following Monday’s proceedings, Bannon lashed out at the Jan. 6 committee, calling its public hearings a “show trial” and saying he looked forward to his criminal trial beginning Tuesday. Asked whether he believed his jury could be fair, Bannon replied, “Yes, I do.”
Bannon, in recent days, indicated he would relent and cooperate with the select committee, but so far he has yet to provide documents or testimony to the panel…
Like calls to like:
Chekov’s Gun?
Villago Delenda Est
The only person who needs to be “gone medieval” on in this situation is Steve Bannon. No comfy chairs, either.
HumboldtBlue
Villago Delenda Est
This is from the guy who calls himself a Leninist, too.
The Truffle
The Rasputin comparison is apt. Bannon and Rasputin both look like they are terrified of soap and water.
Villago Delenda Est
@HumboldtBlue: Mark Hamill commented on this, saying it was unfair to Pigpen.
Ken
PROSECUTOR (beginning opening statement): “The defendant received an order to take part in a legal procedure, but refused to appear, claiming–”
TWELVE JURORS WHO REALLY DON’T WANT TO BE HERE BUT READ THE PART OF THE JURY SUMMONS ABOUT PENALTIES: “Guilty. Execute him.”
Barbara
@Ken: Seriously. “If we couldn’t ignore the jury summons why does he get to ignore a congressional summons?”
Old School
I’m going to assume that isn’t a full-time position.
Dangerman
Steve, still gotta shower after a Golden Shower, Dude.
nevsky42
To paraphrase Bloom County:
We, the jury, find him guilty. He looks guilty. He smells guilty. He is guilty! AND WE RECOMMEND HE BE FED TO GIANT MAN-EATING COCKROACHES!!!
Judge: “Thank you, Mr. 42.”
No sweat.
Judge: “Would you mind if we started the trial?”
No sweat.
raven
Parks and Rec represent!
dmsilev
@Old School: Depends. If you’re called for film festival grand jury duty, that can last for months at a time.
HumboldtBlue
@Villago Delenda Est:
I saw that.
The Thin Black Duke
Count me skeptical that Bannon will spend even one hour in jail when all is said and done.
Baud
I hope he gets sentenced to one shirt.
Actions have consequences.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@The Truffle: My brother and I resent comparison to the man who invented the “Homeless Preppy” look. We believe in washing on a regular basis; he look like he could ruin the water quality of one of the Great Lakes if he fell in.
Mike in NC
Filthy rat deserves two years at a minimum, and should be required to take a shower once a month.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@The Truffle: My brother and I find your remark distasteful. We believe in sanitation, whereas Bannon “the Homeless Preppy” looks like he could ruin the water quality of a Great Lake if he fell in.
Baud
Not sure he’d get the maximum given that the judge is a Trump appointee.
Booger
@Dangerman: …when being judged by a jury of your pee-ers.
rikyrah
John Della Volpe (@dellavolpe) tweeted at 6:20 PM on Tue, Jul 19, 2022:
News from @cnn poll isn’t more of same re Biden, it’s erosion of Republican support in generic ballot IN THIS ENVIRONMENT.
RV
May 42D – 49R
July 46D – 46R
Women
May 46D – 44R
July 51D – 40R
Independents
May 33D – 41R
July 36D – 39R
65+
May 37D – 62R
July 49D – 47R
(https://twitter.com/dellavolpe/status/1549534789736271872?t=aiuHDdCY5hOOufDypcZokA&s=03)
Baud
@rikyrah:
That 65+ number is too good to be true.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
If Dems keep hammering the social security and medicare threats, it will be true.
ian
Rasputin served a valuable purpose in the Czar’s court. Much of the royalty of Europe carried a genetic marker for hemophilia, and one of the Czar’s sons, Alexei Romanov, had it pretty bad. Rasputin had the ability to calm the child down enough to make the bleeding slow enough it could be staunched. Bannon has evidenced no such useful purpose.
the pollyanna from hell
The Heatflation Manchinflation Price Flattening Act
I propose a bill in congress to combat inflation by supplying emergency support to replace farm production stricken by catastrophic climate change.
And to combat the other two parts of Manchinflation, which are greedflation and pot-holeflation:
opportunistic profiteering and crumbling infra-structure friction losses.
Also to combat Putinflation, from destruction, atrocity, and transport stoppage.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Maybe they heard about Rick Scott’s plan?
PS: I didn’t know the judge in the Bannon case is a Trump appointee. That sucks. I was hoping the sumbitch would get at least a few months in the hoosegow.
R-Jud
Man, Bannon really does look like the drowned corpse of Nick Offerman.
Leto
@HumboldtBlue: not enough shirts.
That sweet, sweet bothsider NPR demographic. How good was that research really?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
“They want to give your Social Security to fetuses!”
Needs work.
Alison Rose
@The Thin Black Duke: Yeah. I hate feeling cynical but… ~gestures vaguely~.
Betty Cracker
@R-Jud: OMG! You’re right, and now I will never be able to un-see that.
Layer8Problem
@ian: I like where you’re going with this. Bannon certainly presents an immense danger to the Trumps; ergo, the multi-talented Jared Kushner will take upon himself the Prince Felix Yusupov disposal job of Bannon in the role of Rasputin.
WaterGirl
PSA:
James E Powell
@The Thin Black Duke:
I have no expectations; I’ve been surprised by juries in both directions.
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: (Gasp!) But it’s already past noon Eastern time!!
Miss Bianca
@HumboldtBlue: unfair to Pigpen.
But funny.
Scout211
@Baud: all of us in that age bracket lived through all abortions being illegal so . . . maybe not too good to be true.
Miss Bianca
@Villago Delenda Est: Damn it, Mark Hamill beats me to it! (And you too, of course.)
the pollyanna from hell
@the pollyanna from hell:
Dave refuses to be rushed; he wants to go deeper and broader than possible in a few minutes writing time. I will pass it on when he gets it done.
My answer to Goku the other day was not complete. When I said “stupid and gimmicky” I referred not only to the flaws in stagflation theory, but also to my own feeling awkward and reluctant to use cutesy neologisms. But my complex analysis text used “amplitwist” and after twenty years I might be almost ready to get used to it.
You guys could help me a lot by typing all these terms into a web search in the next few days. You won’t find anything, but it will move the rankings. Heatflation, Manchinflation, greedflation, pot-holeflation, Putinflation, Grist (from whence the idea first came.)
Joe Falco
We’re going to find out when Bannon goes to jail and has to wear a jumpsuit if, underneath all those shirts, he was three guys on top of one another all along.
Ken
@Joe Falco: Or he’s some sort of Men in Black alien in a not-very-realistic human suit, perhaps.
James E Powell
@Baud:
If we hammer Rick Scott’s plans for social security – as we should every single day – we could mitigate the usual strong R lean of 65+ crowd – present company excluded, of course.
I am still hoping to see & hear it.
robmassing
@R-Jud: what is up with that big black spot on his left temple? He should get that looked at. Or on second thought just let it fester and eventually kill him.
Baud
@James E Powell:
My guess is that message will be micro targeted to seniors. You may not see a national ad blitz.
But what do I know?
HumboldtBlue
WereBear
@ian: Rasputin also had the reputation of being catnip to women. Another area where Bannon cannot compare.
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
He’s been strong in the courts for a long while.
HumboldtBlue
Fetterman continues to make fabulous dunks on Mehmet’s head, at one point the ref is gonna have to stop the fight.
TaMara
@R-Jud: That’s an insult to Nick Offerman’s corpse
UncleEbeneezer
Left this comment on another thread but is is more apt here Good post by Barb McQuade about DOJ/Garland and reality-based timelines for indictments of Trump (spoiler: expecting these before mid terms not realistic due to numerous, legit reasons):
https://install.local/wednesday-morning-open-thread-too-busy-for-summer/#comment-56192
Gin & Tonic
@robmassing: I have spots like that. Fortunately for me, they are benign.
TaMara
This probably deserves its own post but since we are coming up on site maintenance, I’ll leave it here.
dm
@Baud: Yes, that 65+ number is weird.
65+ is people who came of age during the sixties, and remember the sexual revolution, looking at overturning Roe, and the impact it will have on their grand-daughters?
They’re retired, and able to watch the daytime broadcasts of the Jan. 6 committee hearings?
Somehow the Rick Scott Social Security proposals have come to their attention?
Leto
@HumboldtBlue: he’s been speaking about it for a few years now. Glad he’s still going at it. He’s specifically called out Lenard Leo and the Federalist Society over and over.
HumboldtBlue
Villago Delenda Est
@HumboldtBlue: Lord Voldemort is doing his damnedest to help Dem chances with his social security and medicare/medicaid proposals.
James E Powell
@Baud:
That’s the trend. And it is the method that supposedly gave us Brexit & Trump.
Republicans are ahead of us on micro-targeting. I think it’s because they are wired in with the voracious capitalists who developed it.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mike in NC:
If they really wanted to punish him, they’d make him take a shower daily.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Ya know, I am not one to cast aspersions on anyone so you would never find me calling Bannon a wine guzzling treason slob.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
65 is a few years in the rearview for me. I should be on the receiving end of any micro-targeting aimed at the Social Security/Medicare demographic, but crickets so far.
Sister Golden Bear
@HumboldtBlue:
[Inserts Street Fighter “Finish him!” gif]
Miss Bianca
@Grumpy Old Railroader: Wine-guzzling treason slobs everywhere appreciate your discretion.//
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
The Dems know you’re solid, man. They won’t waste resources on you.
The Truffle
@dm: It is pretty weird, and it undercuts the image of senior citizens who relocate to the Villages and watch Fox News.
@Grumpy Old Railroader: I always think Bannon must have fleas.
HumboldtBlue
@Sister Golden Bear:
Perfect
Leto
ProPublica: Ex husband suing ex wife 4yrs after she had an abortion, that he was present for, while they were married
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
My junk email account says otherwise.
satby
@HumboldtBlue: And this time, the over-65s will believe it when they didn’t before. Because Roe was overturned.
Also because that’s the age group from when Roe was decided and many of them fought for abortion rights.
HumboldtBlue
@satby:
I just saw a tweet about 20 minutes ago reporting on a 15-point swing between 65+ voters, so it’s not just one source.
James E Powell
@HumboldtBlue:
I don’t mind Fetterman owning Oz on social media, but I’d really like to hear more about his organizing & messages to voters. I’m assuming that is going on as well & hope it’s going well. He looks like a lock against that TV clown, but after 2016, I will never feel comfortable again.
Scout211
Some hopeful news about the upcoming senate vote on the Respect for Marriage Act. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics/same-sex-marriage-republican-senators/index.html
HumboldtBlue
@James E Powell:
His health remains a concern, and he hasn’t returned to active campaigning yet.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
He should have a navy shower awarded to him every day of the trial and every day of the 2 yr sentence.
Now thankfully I’m no longer in the navy, nor am I a resident of any jail, including the one he’ll occupy, but still I’d bet if the brush handles are long enough, there would be plenty of volunteers.
The Moar You Know
And his lawyer shrugged, realizing there was not going to be any avenue for appeal.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
Sometimes federal judicial appointments work as the framers had inended – lifetime tenure means that once sworn in, they don’t owe the President who appointed them anything, and they act independently of the wishes of the President who appointed them. Other times, federal judicial appointments are chosen with their inclination to follow a particular ideological agenda in mind.
But in either case, sometimes even a very ideological judge will choose a case like Bannon’s to prove the point that they act on their own judgment, rather than to please the President who nominated them. So the fact that Trump appointed the Judge presiding over Bannon’s trial won’t necessarily be of much help to Bannon, if the Judge sees the event as an occasion to burnish their cred as a judge rather than Trump’s political hack. Even if the Judge turns out to be awful in the majority of cases that come before him or her.
catclub
@R-Jud: I thought of Wolverine gone paunchy.
Ruckus
@HumboldtBlue:.
I’ll say this: Social Security is vital to the way this country works. We spend decades doing something, our little bit if you will, and paying in a reasonable percentage of our wages (or perceived as unreasonable if you are one of those who limits out because of the amount you make) and then you get to a point that retirement is necessary and you start drawing out of those funds you’ve put in over the decades, in my case an actual six decades, and you survive till the end of your life. IOW, a human existence. You provide a service(s) or product(s) that society needs or wants and you get in return an ability to not have to walk/crawl into a corner to waste away and die quickly because you no longer can be reasonably productive. You get a very earned vacation. Rethuglicans want you to sit in that corner and waste away and die, quickly now, because you are
uselessnegative to their bank accounts.Ruckus
@ian:
Bannon has evidenced no
suchuseful purpose whatsoever.FIXIT for you.
A horrible waste of protoplasm. A stench upon the planet as it were.
James E Powell
@HumboldtBlue:
I’m hoping he’s following doctors’ orders and saving his energies for post-Labor Day when people are paying attention.
mrmoshpotato
Contempt?This disgusting bastard is on trial for CONTEMPT?!
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Perilous
TBF, Mensch isn’t wrong.
Yet.