The Jan. 6 Committee is throwing a wide net out there, trying to drag up anything they can to try to attach President Donald Trump to actions during the Capitol riot.
But one of the people they tried to subpoena — Steve Bannon — isn’t playing along. He’s refusing to comply, citing President Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege. His attorney said they had to honor “the executive privileges belong to President Trump.”
The letter from Bannon’s legal team goes on to say it may be up to the courts to decide whether he is ultimately forced to cooperate — essentially daring the House to sue or hold him in criminal contempt.
“As such, until these issues are resolved, we are unable to respond to your request for documents and testimony,” wrote the lawyer, Robert Costello.
There’s a big question about the fishing expedition they are trying to go on here with these subpoenas. On top of that, there’s one about Congress trying to subpoena people over their political protest rights. It’s one thing if you actually have the FBI operating on the basis of probable cause. It’s another if it’s a political witch hunt, trying to serve a political end.
But it’s definitely causing Never Trumper Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson to melt down. According to Wilson — and we haven’t yet determined this is true, so we say this with a grain of salt, because of course, it’s Rick Wilson — he’s claiming that the Jan. 6 Committee doesn’t intend to enforce the subpoenas they have sent out.
“To say I’m livid is putting it mildly,” Wilson went on to add, “I have some bad news. After multiple calls I have some extremely grim news. As of now 1/6 commission is dead already, and will not enforce the subpoenas. Trump wins. ”
According to the Never Trumper, “This is staffed wrong, led wrong, and a gutless exercise to get back to talking about infrastructure. They’re not taking the risk seriously, they’re not taking the data before them seriously, and they’re eager to run out the clock.”
Wilson claimed the Committee intended to “slow roll it and write a tsk tsk memo at the end…Democrats, never tell me again ‘We got this.’ Because you don’t have this.”
Here are some of the hot takes on Wilson’s tears, via our sister site Twitchy.
Now, as much as we love Rick Wilson and Never Trump tears, he’s almost always wrong; that’s why he’s a Never Trump person to begin with. Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-WY) is now denying the rumor he was spreading.
This is not true. 1/6 Committee is making significant progress and we will enforce subpoenas. Committee statement coming soon. https://t.co/syn0Rux9wb
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) October 8, 2021
So, we shall have to see how it all spools out, in terms of legal decisions on the subpoenas. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) already proved what a sham the Committee was going to be by only putting Democrats and a couple of Republicans with a fixed, anti-Trump opinion on the Committee.
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