Steve Bannon trial on contempt of Congress charges set to start Monday

At a recent hearing that left Bannon’s legal strategy in tatters, his lawyer David Schoen asked U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols, “what’s the point of going to trial if there are no defenses?” The judge replied simply: “Agreed.”

The exchange was a remarkable comedown for the combative, bombastic Bannon team that live-streamed his declaration, “we’re taking down the Biden regime” as he surrendered to the FBI in late 2021 on charges he had illegally flouted the House committee probing Jan. 6.

The judge’s response was a lawyerly way of urging Bannon to seek a plea deal with the government, rather than face long odds at a short trial, said Randall Eliason, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor.

“Obviously everyone’s entitled to a trial, but usually if you go to trial there’s some kind of legal or factual dispute that needs to be resolved,” Eliason said. “The judge’s point is, there aren’t really any here … In those instances, going to trial becomes what prosecutors sometimes call a long guilty plea.”

Bannon judge shreds his proposed defenses

Bannon’s case, while high profile and politically significant, is a legal rarity. Over the last four decades — even when Congress referred such an instance of alleged contempt of Congress to the Justice Department for prosecution — they were rarely charged, and those that did lead to convictions or pleas came undone. But this trial comes amid highly-watched televised hearings of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — the panel that Bannon refused to speak to, or provide documents to, leading to his criminal charges.

Bannon is one of two former Trump aides to face criminal charges in connection with rebuffing the committee, along with former White House trade adviser Peter K. Navarro. On the same day Navarro was indicted in June, the Justice Department disclosed that it would not charge former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications chief Daniel Scavino Jr.

Unlike Bannon and Navarro, Meadows and Scavino engaged in months of talks with the committee over the terms and limits of potential testimony and executive privilege claims. Meadows also turned over thousands of text messages and communications with members of Congress and other White House aides before ending negotiations and withdrawing his appearance for a deposition. And unlike the other three men, Bannon left the Trump White House in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time of the 2020 election and subsequent presidential transition.

Bannon’s lawyers have argued that former president Donald Trump invoked executive privilege to shield the conversations from congressional inquiry — but the judge in his case noted that it’s not at all…