Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s hopes of appealing his contempt of Congress conviction have been dealt a major blow after a judge questioned the top Donald Trump ally’s key line of defense.
Bannon’s legal team argued before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday that he should have his 2022 conviction for defying a congressional subpoena issued to him by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack thrown out.
This led to Bannon relying on advice from his then-attorney, Robert Costello, that he could not waive the privilege, which keeps information from the executive branch from becoming public.
"The underlying point here, though, is that there is no limitation on the invocation of executive privilege or its presumption of validity such that it only applies so long as the person with whom the communications were conducted is employed by the White House as an adviser.
Justice Department Attorney Elizabeth Danello argued that Bannon was warned multiple times that the executive privilege defense would not stand up as a reason to not comply with the subpoena.
Prior to the hearings, Schoen told Newsweek that “no matter where anyone stands” on Bannon, they should hope his contempt conviction gets reversed on appeal.
The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s hopes of appealing his contempt of Congress conviction have been dealt a major blow after a judge questioned the top Donald Trump ally’s key line of defense.
Bannon’s legal team argued before a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday that he should have his 2022 conviction for defying a congressional subpoena issued to him by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack thrown out.
This led to Bannon relying on advice from his then-attorney, Robert Costello, that he could not waive the privilege, which keeps information from the executive branch from becoming public.
"The underlying point here, though, is that there is no limitation on the invocation of executive privilege or its presumption of validity such that it only applies so long as the person with whom the communications were conducted is employed by the White House as an adviser.
Justice Department Attorney Elizabeth Danello argued that Bannon was warned multiple times that the executive privilege defense would not stand up as a reason to not comply with the subpoena.
Prior to the hearings, Schoen told Newsweek that “no matter where anyone stands” on Bannon, they should hope his contempt conviction gets reversed on appeal.
The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!