The Washington Federal Court judged the ex-advisor of the guilty president on the two charges, for each of which he faces between a month and a year in prison. The penalty will be determined in October.
Le Monde with AFP
Steve Bannon, ex-procurement of Donald Trump, was recognized on Friday, July 22, guilty of obstacles to the prerogatives of investigation by a Federal Court on Friday, July 22, after refusing to cooperate with the Commission on the Capitole Assault .
The 68-year-old man, a figure of far-right populism in the United States and director of the successful campaign of Donald Trump in 2016, will know his sentence in October. The jury of a Washington Federal Court deliberated for less than three hours on Friday to conclude his guilt on the two charges that weighed against him. It faces between a month and a year in prison for each of these leaders.
David Schoen, one of Steve Bannon’s lawyers, said outside the courthouse that the verdict would not hold. “It’s the first round,” he said. “You will see that this case will be overturned on appeal.” The accused himself said: “We may have lost a battle today, but we will not lose this war.”
Even after being dismissed from the White House in August 2017, Steve Bannon had remained close to Donald Trump and had exchanged with him the day before the attack of January 6, 2021 against the headquarters of the Congress. To find out the nature of their discussions, the parliamentary commission of inquiry responsible for shedding light on the role of the former president in this coup assigned Mr. Bannon to testify and produce documents. He had refused, invoking the right of presidents to keep certain secret conversations, which had earned him being charged as “hindrance” at the work of the congress.
At the opening of the debates on Tuesday, the prosecutor Amanda Vaughn accused Steve Bannon of believing himself “above the law”. Mr. Bannon “ignored the orders to comply, even after the Congress rejected his pretexts, and swept away many warnings that he would face prosecution if he did not comply with the assignment to appear as He was required to do so, “added Amanda Vaughn.
According to her, the Commission had legitimate reasons to think that he may have, like others close to the president, information on the links between Donald Trump and his supporters who took the Capitol while the Parliamentarians certified the victory of the Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election.
The defense did not produce witnesses at the trial, started on Monday with the selection of jurors, and Steve Bannon did not speak himself to defend himself. His lawyer, Evan Corcoran, however denounced political prosecution, ensuring that “no one [vait] ignored the assignment to appear” and that negotiations had even taken place with the commission concerning his date of deposition. >
Approaching his trial, Steve Bannon, had agreed to cooperate with parliamentarians. The prosecutors had denounced “a last minute turnaround in order to avoid” a conviction and the judge in charge of the file, Carl Nichols, had wished to maintain the trial.