Former President Trump said he has waived executive privilege to allow Steve Bannon to testify before the committee on Jan. 6, according to a letter he sent his former adviser on Saturday.
What’s new: The Justice Department said Trump’s lawyer, Justin Clark, told the FBI in a June 29 interview “that the former president never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or material ” related to Bannon, per a motion filed in DC District Court early Monday and obtained by the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell.
Why it matters: Last November, a federal grand jury indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with a January 6 court subpoena.
What they are saying: The DOJ said in its Monday court filing that Bannon’s “last-minute efforts to testify, nearly nine months after his breach — he has still made no effort to produce records — are irrelevant to whether he refused deliberately to comply in October 2021 with the Select Committee subpoena”.
Any evidence or arguments “relating to his eleventh-hour efforts should therefore be excluded at trial,” the motion added.
Driving the news: In his letter, Trump said he invoked executive privilege when Bannon first received the committee’s subpoena.
However, he said he decided to reverse his position after seeing “how unfairly” Bannon and others had been treated, “having to spend huge amounts of money on legal fees and all the trauma you have to go through because of the your “If a time and place could be agreed upon for the testimony, Trump wrote that he would waive executive privilege, “which allows you to come in and testify truthfully and fairly, as requested by the Unselect Committee on thugs and political thugs.” Hacks.”
In a letter to Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who chairs the committee Jan. 6, a lawyer for Bannon wrote that his client would be willing to testify and would prefer to do so in a public hearing.
“Mr. Bannon has had no change of heart or stance,” Robert Costello wrote, but noted that “circumstances have now changed,” referring to Trump’s decision to waive executive privilege.
Game Status: The damning January 6th committee testimony has drawn millions of viewers and sought to emphasize the direct links between Trump and the January 6th violence.
Representatives for Trump and Bannon did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details from the DOJ court filing.
