Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Bannon Must be Held in Contempt of Congress
Steve Bannon, a man who thinks of himself as a Leninist wrecker of administrative states, defied a subpoena from the Congressional committee investigating the attempted coup d'etat on January 6, 2021. He was ordered to produce documents and appear in person for a deposition. He has done neither. His pretext is a silly claim by Donald Trump that Mr. Bannon is protected by executive privilege. This is untrue, and even if it were, that privilege does not excuse Mr. Bannon from appearing. The committee voted unanimously to hold him in contempt, and the full House votes tomorrow on referring the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution. Every vote against the measure is a vote to end Congressional oversight. He must be jailed.
The committee was established by the House of Representatives and given subpoena power from the beginning. The committee subpoenaed Mr. Bannon under its rules, and he was properly served. Mr. Trump asserted that there was some sort of executive privilege that precludes the committee from hearing from Mr. Bannon. Therefore, Mr. Bannon did not have to appear, goes the argument. That is not how this works.
Congress or any committee empowered by Congress to do so can subpoena anyone. That person must appear. There is no other option. No privilege or pardon exists that can remove that requirement. Once present in the committee room, a witness may exercise whatever rights he wishes. One can plead the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination. One can assert executive privilege. One can refuse to answer for any reason. However, this refusal must be done in person.
Had Mr. Bannon turned up as ordered and simply said, "I decline to answer the committee's questions because former President Trump has said our conversations come under executive privilege." This would, of course, be nonsense legally. Mr. Bannon was a private citizen at the time of the insurrection and had been for a couple of years. No executive privilege exists for this, and any court would find that way. Yet the procedure is for the witness to invoke the privilege in person in the committee room, and then the lawyers take the matter to the courts for adjudication. It is a clunky, awkward arrangement, but it is the way the law is handled.
By failing to appear and to provide the documents, Mr. Bannon has failed in his civic duty. An American citizen has obligations as well as rights. There is a duty to follow the laws, and among those laws is the requirement that people obey subpoenas.
The way forward is clear. The House must vote unanimously to refer this matter to the Justice Department for prosecution. The DoJ must impanel a grand jury and secure an indictment. Then, Mr. Bannon must be arrested, arraigned and tried. Without that happening, a Congressional subpoena becomes so much junk mail.
Without the power to compel testimony and to secure documents, Congress loses what little oversight power it still retains. The Trump administration was exceptionally good at eroding this power because the DoJ during that time simply didn't bother prosecuting those who defied subpoenas when it suited the president's short-term political needs.
This is not about Mr. Bannon, who is less like Lenin and more like Malcolm McClaren (the manager of the Sex Pistols who had no idea what he was doing but enjoyed the chaos he could create). This is not even about the attempted coup d'etat. This is about whether Congress will hand over even more power to the executive and judiciary than it already has. If Congress cannot hold people accountable, it becomes a rubber-stamp, talking shop. And that is how republics die.
A vote not to prosecute Mr. Bannon is a vote against Congress and the Constitution.
© Copyright 2021 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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