Steve Bannona former white House strategist and collaborator Donald Trump Months after defying a congressional summons over the Capitol riot, the man facing criminal charges has told house committee Investigating the attack, he is now ready to testify.
Bannon’s turnabout was made known in a letter to his lawyer late Saturday, lawmakers said, as the committee prepares to air some of its most striking revelations against Trump this week in what could be its final set of hearings. could.
“I hope we hear from him and we have many questions for him,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said. She and other committee members said in television interviews Sunday that they intended to have Bannon sit for a private interview, which they usually conduct in a statement accompanying the swearing-in.
Bannon was one of the Trump-affiliated holdouts for refusing to testify before the committee, leading to two criminal counts of contempt of Congress last year for opposing the committee’s subpoena. He has argued that his testimony is protected by Trump’s claim of executive privilege. The committee argues that such a claim is dubious because Trump fired Bannon from the White House in 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with the then president on the January 6, 2021 riots .
Still, in recent days, as the former president cried out as a one-sided presentation by a committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans, Trump said he’d like to take that privilege, according to a letter Saturday to Bannon’s attorney. Will waive the claim.
“If you reach an agreement on a time and place for your testimony, I will relinquish the executive privilege of allowing you to truthfully and impartially enter and testify as requested by the unelected committee of political thugs and hackers. allows,” Trump wrote.
Thursday evening’s hearing of the committee will examine a period of more than three hours after Trump supporters failed to act as a crowd of supporters stormed the Capitol. It will be the first hearing in prime time since its June 9 debut that was watched by 20 million people.
A hearing Tuesday will focus on plotting and planning a rebellion by white nationalist groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and the Three Percentors, and will also highlight testimony taken Friday from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
It comes after surprising testimony last month from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, providing the most compelling evidence yet that Trump may be linked to a federal crime. Since then, the committee has seen an influx of new information and confidential suggestions.
Representative Jamie Ruskin, D-MD, suggested that Bannon “had a change of heart, and after seeing, presumably, all of these people, including Cassidy Hutchinson, come forward, he decided he wanted to come in, and if They want to come, I am sure the committee will be very interested to hear from them.
Bannon’s trial in two criminal cases is on July 18. His case was to be heard in federal court in Washington on Monday. Bannon is seeking a delay in his trial to at least fall.
It’s not clear how much Bannon wants to cooperate. He has expressed his preference to appear before the committee in the public hearing. The committee is clarifying that they will first have to sit for a personal interview, usually at the swearing-in. It is also possible that he may choose to appear and then refuse to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment Act against self-incrimination.
“The way we’ve treated every single witness is the same, they come in, they talk to the committee there,” Ruskin said. “If they are going to take a statement, they are sworn in. It has been videographed. It is recorded, and then we take it from there.”
The committee says it wants to hear from Bannon because he “had specific knowledge of the events on January 6th.” It cited as an example comment he made on his podcast the day before the riots.
“It’s not going to be like you think it’s going to happen. Well, it’s going to be quite extraordinarily different. All I can say is strap in,” Bannon said in that podcast. “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. … so many people said, ‘Man, if I was in a revolution, I would be in’ Washington, Well, it’s your time in history.”
House investigators are digging deeper into the evidence collected so far that extremist groups played a role in the deadly rebellion and what Trump was doing as the violence broke out across the street from the White House.
Rape. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who will lead Thursday’s hearing with Representative Ellen Luria, D-VA, called the upcoming testimony the key to providing a comprehensive timeline of what Trump did and didn’t do in those critical hours. as described. The afternoon of January 6, 2021. This includes Trump’s tweet criticizing Vice President Mike Pence for his lack of “courage” as angry protesters outside the Capitol used a “hang Mike Pence” for not challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. Slogans were heard.
“We want to show the American people what the president was doing at the time,” Kizinger said on Sunday. “The rest of the country knew that there was a rebellion. The president should have clearly known that a rebellion had taken place. so where was he? what was he doing? This is a very important hearing. pay attention. Because I think it goes to the heart of what a leader’s oath is.”
Tuesday’s hearing will explore efforts to gather crowds on the National Mall and then march down Pennsylvania Avenue, where some rioters – armed with pipes, bats and bear spray _ charged into the Capitol, quickly overwhelmed police forces. surpassed. More than 100 police officers were injured that day, many were beaten up, covered in blood and wounded.
It will also highlight a meeting at the White House on December 18, 2020 in which former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn and others called for the seizure of voting machines and the imposition of national security emergency powers. The idea was put forth, according to Ruskin, who led Tuesday’s hearing, to the heated objection of several White House lawyers, who argued that Trump needed to accept his defeat.
6 hearing, the outcome of the abortion ban could affect Trump’s hopes of a comeback. why over here
“We’re going to use a lot of Mr Cipollone’s testimony,” he said. “He was aware of every major move, I think, that Donald Trump was trying to overthrow the 2020 election and essentially seize the presidency.”
Kizinger spoke on ABC’s “This Week, Lofgren on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and Ruskin appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, contributed to this report.
© 2022 Canadian Press