WASHINGTON, July 12 — Former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon must stand trial for contempt next week, a judge ruled yesterday, despite his belated U-turn in agreeing to testify before the committee investigating the US Capitol riot.
“I see no reason for extending this case any longer,” said Judge Carl Nichols, according to US media reports.
Bannon, the 68-year-old co-founder of far-right media site Breitbart News who led Trump’s successful 2016 election campaign, was among dozens of people called to testify on last year’s insurrection aimed at shutting down Congress over then-president Trump’s baseless claims that widespread voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election.
In November last year, Bannon — who served in the White House as Trump’s strategy chief before being sacked — was charged with contempt of Congress after refusing to testify, and his trial is set to begin on July 18.
His lawyers sought to delay the start of the hearings until October, so that they would not take place at the same time as the public hearings of the congressional committee, but the judge refused.
Last weekend, Bannon finally did a U-turn and agreed to cooperate with the investigation, a move prosecutors said was a “last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability” by stalling his court appearance. — AFP
