In his June 29 interview, attorney Justin Clark contradicted former Trump senior adviser Steve Bannon’s claim that the former president invoked executive privilege over particular information or materials, which Bannon had cited as an excuse to avoid testifying before the Trump administration. House select committee investigating insurrection
Bannon told the committee Saturday that he is now willing to testify, ideally in a public hearing, according to a letter obtained by CNN. He previously defied a congressional subpoena and is scheduled to go on trial on criminal contempt charges later this month. The reversal came after he received a letter from Trump waiving executive privilege, though both the House select committee and federal prosecutors maintain that the privilege claim never gave Bannon carte blanche to ignore a subpoena from the Congress first.
According to prosecutors, “Bannon’s attorney misrepresented to the Committee what the former president’s attorney had told the defendant’s attorney.”
In October, Bannon’s attorneys told the House select committee that Clark had informed them that Trump would exercise executive privilege over Bannon and “has directed Mr. Bannon not to produce documents or testify until the privilege issue is resolved.” executive”.
Prosecutors previously cited emails from Clark telling Bannon’s attorney, Robert Costello, that the letter Costello cited to the committee did not, in fact, indicate that the White House believed Bannon could claim executive privilege.
“The former president’s attorney made it clear to the defendant’s attorney that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance,” prosecutors wrote in Monday’s filing.
The January 6 committee was interested in speaking with Bannon about his communications with Trump in December 2020, when Bannon allegedly urged him to focus on the January 6 certification of the presidential election results. Committee members were also interested in Bannon’s comments in the lead-up to the Capitol insurrection, including a Jan. 5 podcast, in which he predicted, “Tomorrow all hell will break loose.”
