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US, Steve Bannon found guilty of outrage at congress

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US, Steve Bannon found guilty of outrage at congress

WASHINGTONSteve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the commission of inquiry into the January 6, 2021 assault on Capitol Hill. The verdict, delivered by a Washington federal court after three hours in council chamber, swoops like a boulder on Donald Trump and his presidential ambitions for 2024. The billionaire’s former strategist, the first to fall into Trump’s narrow circle of loyalists, faces a minimum of 30 days to a maximum of two years in prison, as well as thousands of dollars in fines. The ruling is expected on 21 October and it is not clear how the judge is Carl Nichols, appointed by the former president, intends to move. Trials like Bannon’s are indeed a rarity and no one for more than 50 years, since the Cold War, has ever ended up behind bars for contempt of Congress.

Present in the courtroom at the reading of the verdict, Bannon indulged in a big smile, with an almost defiant attitude. “We have lost a battle, but we will win the war,” he told him outside the court. “I am with Trump and with the Constitution,” he added. Next to him his lawyer David Schoenwhich announced an appeal.

The commission of inquiry on January 6, 2021 watches a video by Bannon (afp)

The guilty verdict, beyond public safety ostentation, is a blow to Bannon, first catapulted by Trump into the Oval Office, then dumped by the tycoon himself and now found guilty of outrage to Congress. Years of tensions and ups and downs that did not, however, affect relations between the two: precisely on January 5, the day before the assault on Congress, Bannon and Trump had spoken by phone several times. And the former strategist – according to rumors – was at the Willard Hotel in Washington in the days before the uprising as a member of the “command center” of Trump’s loyalists, working day and night to deny Joe Biden the presidency. However, Bannon has always denied any responsibility for the attack on January 6, while boasting that he is the “ideological architect” of the efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 elections.

Trump trial

by Carlo Bonini (editorial coordination), Paolo Mastrolilli and Laura Pertici (multimedia coordination). Gedi Visual production


“This is not a complex case but it is an important one,” the assistant prosecutor said Molly Gaston in his final speech before the jury. Bannon “chose loyalty to Trump rather than respect for the law,” he added. Bannon’s lawyers argued that their client “did not ignore” any subpoena before the commission of inquiry and that the request to testify was not only illegitimate but also politically motivated. Words that did not earn Bannon acquittal, at least in this first round.

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