Tipsheet

Progressive Reporter Highlights How Steve Bannon's Conviction Is Abnormal

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  June 12, 2024 6:00 AM

A lot is going on right now with the 2024 election, Hunter Biden’s gun trial, and the war in the Middle East. That hasn’t stopped the media from reporting on Steve Bannon’s conviction for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in 2021. 

Bannon gave the committee the finger and is hardly the first person to do it. Peter Navarro, another Trump official, was also convicted of “contempt of Congress” and sentenced to four months in jail; Bannon got slapped with the same amount of time behind bars. Yet, progressive reporter Glenn Greenwald torched the convictions, noting how the Biden Justice Department has gone outside the mainstream with these referrals. He even dredged up past instances where such referrals were submitted and rejected during the Bush years. 

“You'd be hard-pressed to find another case where people explicitly were held in contempt of congressional subpoenas but who were referred to the Justice Department and/or then prosecuted by the Justice Department for it,” said Greenwald. He detailed the partisan roots of these referrals, which were submitted by the J6 Committee - essentially a Democrat witch hunt. At the time, Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the Republicans tapped to serve on the committee, which led to no Republicans sitting on it in protest. Former Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) served, but even Greenwald noted these two were essentially Democrats on this matter. If Democrats wanted to flex their muscles now that the DOJ was back under their control, these referrals presented an opportunity to do so with impunity:

Bannon knew this would be a circus and a waste of time. As we know, the last thing this committee was focused on was finding the truth. When Republicans retook the House, lo and behold, nothing was adequately cataloged, and all communications with the Biden White House were erased from the record. It sort of undercuts the Democrats’ narrative about how this was the most egregious attack on the republic since 9/11, right? You’d think with such bold statements, all the evidence would be cataloged. It wasn’t. 

The media is hoping that the loss of Bannon could help Biden’s chances, with NBC News framing it as a loss of a key voice:

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…a judge told Bannon he’s going to jail. 

The development could silence someone in the final months of the presidential election who has served as an inspiration for much of the MAGA movement and been one of Trump’s most aggressive zealots — thanks in large part to his “War Room” show, which he has built to lead the grassroots of the Republican Party to the ballot box in November. 

NBC News spent months tracking Bannon’s show, which streams on Rumble, attending tapings and speaking with dozens of Republicans — from the rank and file at rallies to lawmakers in the halls of Congress — about the influence he wields and how he has built an audience he can leverage to influence party disputes and, he hopes, national elections. 

Bannon, who vowed to appeal the sentence all the way to the Supreme Court, suggested he may not comply with the order to report to prison when asked if he could broadcast from a penitentiary. 

“Who says I’m reporting!” he said in a text message. “WarRoom can not and will not be silenced.” 

He’ll find a way to remain active. It goes without saying—what an absolute crock all of this is, especially when Hunter Biden did the same thing.