Will Steve Bannon Do Time? Don’t Hold Your Breath
– By Ed Kociela –
It’s no surprise that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurgence when a band of treasonous rebels tried to overthrow the government and tear down the Constitution found Steve Bannon in contempt.
Bannon, perhaps the most contemptuous weasel that scurried around the White House during Donald Trump’s administration, could end up with a year of prison time plus a $100,000 fine for snubbing a House subpoena to testify.
The matter is now in the hands of the Department of Justice, which could decline to charge Bannon, place charges on him immediately, or put together a grand jury to indict him for his part in the insurgence.
Usually, DOJ acts quickly in such matters. But, unfortunately, when the claim of executive privilege is invoked as it is in this case the result can be favorable to the accused. In the case against Steve Bannon, the best evidence shows that he spent considerable time advising Trump in the run-up to the violence and warned on his podcast the night before it went down that “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow…strap in.” According to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), there is reason to believe that Bannon knows how Trump was “personally involved” in the insurgence. But, that not-so-little issue of executive privilege could be a problem. There is precedent to worry that it could all be shelved and that the guilty go unpunished.
So, what happens with Steve Bannon remains to be seen and, in the end, will be regarded as a political statement however it falls.
But, believe me, if ever there is a guy who deserves to go to trial for something like this it is Bannon.
The guy represents all that was wrong with the Trump administration.
Bannon, the CEO of Trump’s 2016 campaign, and three cronies were busted and charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering for putting together a scheme linked to the We Build the Wall Campaign, a group raising funds to construct Trump’s barrier at the Mexican border. The money they raised was supposed to go toward that effort. Instead, it landed in their pockets. Before going to court, he was pardoned by Trump.
Bannon was permanently banned from Twitter for comments he made on the social media giant that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded. He is also known for creating at least three organizations globally built on populist ideology.
The Bannon stink is palpable, so much so that he found himself in and out of the Trump doghouse on several occasions. In the end, he was pardoned, presumably, because he knows too much.
In some regard, this all seems like tedious insider stuff, nagging little tufts of procedure and protocol mostly ignored by most who are not political wonks.
But, the thing is, this is real criminal activity that can be ignored if one is a member of the political elite. And, remember, elitism is something the Trumpsters railed against as they marched to a small Electoral College win in 2016 and something used to provoke the traitors who violated the Constitution on Jan. 6. Imagine, if you will, what would happen to the rest of us should we be brazen enough to snub a House subpoena. They would slap the cuffs on quicker than you could say Richard Nixon and lock us in the slammer.
I understand that it would be bad for the nation’s image to put a president or former president behind bars, but it gives credence to the Trump line that “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” What it looks like across the globe is that laws were created for everybody but presidents, ex-presidents, or their footmen.
That’s why so many of the special Congressional committees and investigations are merely exercises in futility. I mean, the House had the goods on Trump, impeaching him twice, but he was saved by a wretched Senate that put a priority on politics rather than the law and evidence.
Trump pushed the United States to the edge of anarchy, made it bereft of authority and order. But, he couldn’t have done it without guys like Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort, and at least a dozen others who have been indicted or imprisoned for their part in Trump’s rise to power and desperate attempt to hold onto it at any cost.
The domestic terrorists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 came very close to toppling the United States as we know it. There was no regard for law and order, no respect for the Constitution, no reasoning with that mob of recalcitrant mutineers who were fueled by bloodlust.
It doesn’t take much to understand that Bannon fomented this outrage, that he was placed in charge of the insurrection, that he was the key general of the puppet master who would make himself king.
I had hoped by now we would be done with Trump and his tribe, that he would simply fade away into his suite at Mar-A-Lago, never to be heard from again.
But, he keeps inserting himself in the news cycle either directly by restating The Big Lie about a rigged election or peripherally as part of investigations involving his lieutenants.
I had hoped that we would never hear his name, hear his voice, see his face, that he would be content to play golf, gorge himself on Big Macs and fries, and drift into oblivion.
Of course, I always hoped, as a child, to wake up on Christmas morning and find a pony standing next to the tree. That never happened, either.
And, now?
I hope to see justice served, to see Steve Bannon held accountable for his assault on our country; I would also hope that when pressed, he rolls over on Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, and the rest of those who tried to raise a Fourth Reich, not out of revenge, but as a matter of upholding the rapidly diminishing values and ethics of the United States.
But, I’m not going to hold my breath.
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