The Far Right Contempt

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding Humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
-- The American Crisis, Thomas Paine

It's been a few months of the US House select committee investigating donald trump's call to Insurrection on January 6th, during which there's been some drama and then not a lot happening. The reason for the public inaction is that the committee's subpoenas to people close to trump and who are now known to be involved in the planning stages of trump's "Stop The Steal The Election Rally"

Welp, back in September, that committee tried to call the likes of Steve Bannon, one of trump's more reliable dirty tricksters - in spite of Bannon being on the outs every so often when Bannon tried to cover his own ass instead of his boss - to provide the documents in his possession related to January 6th as well as testify before that committee. Bannon basically told them to eat sand. The committee put it up to a House vote to hold Bannon in contempt in late October, which they did. They then referred the matter to the Department of Justice, because apparently Congress doesn't have the direct power to slap handcuffs on sons-of-bitches.

For the past month, social media was filled with call after call by people demanding the current Attorney General Merrick Garland to just hurry up and file an arrest warrant on Bannon. Even though there was evidence behind-the-scenes that the Department was being slow but diligent: Missing a step in procedure could wreck the whole case, and Bannon's lawyers made careful arguments that needed dismissing first.

Well, this Friday the wait ended. Via Carrie Johnson at NPR:

Steve Bannon has been charged with contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the legislative committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol siege.

Bannon, who was a political adviser to then-President Donald Trump, is charged with one count for failing to appear for a deposition and another for refusing to hand over documents.

The Justice Department's move exposes Bannon to fines and as much as a year of jail time for each count. It follows weeks of deliberation by prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, who will oversee the criminal case.

"Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "Today's charges reflect the department's steadfast commitment to these principles..."

So there's that done. Now onto the 30 to 50 other people in trump's orbit threatening their own acts of Contempt.

Holding people in Contempt of Congress has, by the by, happened often. G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate infamy was held in Contempt, but he never served time because he pled out to a suspended sentence and was already in jail for other Watergate activities.

If you ever track the history of the Contempt charges, it's a mug's game to determine which gets upheld and which won't: Depending on who's in charge at Justice, the Attorney General (hi, William Barr!) could well play a Delay Delay Delay game until the matter disappears. Other times, those held in contempt reach an agreement to provide something to the committee that would satisfy them...

But in Bannon's case it doesn't look like he will make any deals. Because that committee wants trump on a silver platter for his role in the plotting - and there's already a number of media reports how deep trump was involved - and they're going after everybody within 6 feet social distancing of him. If Bannon gives up what he's got, he's putting the burden on others who have closer ties and bloodier hands than he does.

Bannon's smartest move here is to pull more delaying tactics, refusing to even listen to plea deals and throw every dismissal tactic in the law books to get off. This all depends of course on how many others in the Inner Circle of coup planners also get hit with Contempt warrants and find themselves in a situation where they would plead out and screw Bannon (remember in this game kiddos the ones who plea deal first get the safest deals). It also depends on if Bannon is literally held in Contempt at a district jailhouse, which would cut into his profits and his enjoyment of the rich life. You may think some guys are "tough enough" to do a stint in Cell Block 6, but one look at Bannon - Christ, he's in worse shape than me - should tell you he ain't anywhere near "tough" in the dictionary.

Here's hoping the Justice Department follows up and puts all the big names in the lockdown. And that the next round of subpoenas include trump himself.

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Oh by the way this is my 1,997th blog post. I'm three away from 2000!!! We'll see what's happening when I get there.