The Department of Justice said Monday that former President Donald Trump never invoked executive privilege over former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who now says he’s amenable to testifying before the House Jan. 6 committee while he faces prison time for previously refusing to do so.
The DOJ said in a court filing that it has interviewed Trump’s attorney Justin Clark. The FBI interview with Clark on June 29 is connected to the DOJ’s criminal contempt case against Bannon, a prominent populist conservative who was an architect of Trump’s upset 2016 win over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Bannon was then a staff member in the Trump White House for seven months before parting ways.
Bannon has stonewalled the House Jan. 6 committee for eight months, asserting executive privilege
concerning presidential conversations, even though Bannon was long gone as a White House employee by Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters at the Capitol tried to overturn Congress’s certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 win. Bannon is set to go on trial on July 18 for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
Bannon over the weekend reversed course, saying Trump had “waved” claims of executive privilege, which would allow him to testify.
STEVE BANNON TELLS JAN. 6 COMMITTEE HE IS WILLING TO TESTIFY
Bannon’s reversal on willingness to speak with the committee comes just days ahead of when jury selection is expected to take place as part of his contempt of Congress trial.
“While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, circumstances have now changed,” Bannon lawyer Bob Costello wrote in a letter to the Jan. 6 committee. “Mr. Bannon is willing to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public hearing.”
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Bannon’s shift in course comes in the wake of a Trump letter stating he would waive executive privilege if the criminal defendant reached an agreement to testify before the panel.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a member of the select committee, told CNN on Sunday that she expects “we will be hearing from [Bannon], and there are many questions that we have for him.”
That would include comments by Bannon on his podcast in the days before Jan. 6 that suggested obliquely something big and unexpected would take place as Congress certified the Electoral College votes that made Biden the next president.
