Republican members of the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, have announced they will be filing an amicus brief with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon's appeal.
House leaders led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will file a legal brief in support of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s appeal of his conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.
The former Trump adviser was found guilty in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to sit for an interview with the panel and hand over documents. He is appealing the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Bannon — who was ordered to report to prison for a four-month sentence by July 1 — has also filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court last week to remain out of jail as he appeals his conviction.
The brief is technically arising from a bipartisan House group, although the decision in this case was strictly along party lines, as one might expect:
The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — a House group made up of the Speaker and the leaders and whips of the majority and minority parties in the House, which directs the chamber in taking legal positions — voted along party lines to proceed with an amicus brief to the appeals court in the Bannon matter, GOP leaders confirmed Wednesday morning.
“The amicus brief will be submitted after Bannon files a petition for rehearing en banc and will be in support of neither party,” Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in a joint statement. “It will withdraw certain arguments made by the House earlier in the litigation about the organization of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol during the prior Congress. House Republican Leadership continues to believe Speaker Pelosi abused her authority when organizing the Select Committee.”
Speaker Pelosi, when setting up the Select Committee, ignored House Republicans' nominations of members to sit on that body and instead installed Republicans of her choosing.
See Related: BREAKING: Steve Bannon Ordered to Begin Serving Four-Month Prison Sentence on July 1
Speaker Johnson said:
“We’re working on filing an amicus brief in his appellate work there in his case because the Jan. 6 committee was, we think, wrongfully constituted,” Johnson told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “We think the work was tainted. We think that they may have very well covered up evidence and maybe even more nefarious activities.”
“We’ve been investigating the committee itself; we disagree with how Speaker Pelosi put all that together; we think it violated House rules,” he continued. “And so we’ll be expressing that to the court, and I think it will help Steve Bannon in his appeal.”
At this point, it's unlikely that there will be any consequences for anyone involved in the setup of the J6 committee.
It's also important to note that earlier in June, Attorney General Merrick Garland was likewise held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio recordings of President Biden's interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur in the classified documents case.
Previously on RedState: Department of Justice to Speaker Johnson: No Prosecution of Merrick Garland for Contempt of Congress
The Department of Justice, which Garland oversees, refused to prosecute.
This is a developing case. We will continue to monitor and bring you updates as events warrant.
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