Longtime Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon should be barred from claiming at trial that he was relying on legal advice from the former president’s lawyer when he balked at lawmakers’ subpoenas, prosecutors told a judge.
Bannon, who goes on trial in July on charges that he obstructed a House probe into the Jan. 6 insurrection, shouldn’t be permitted to distract jurors with a defense that has no merit, the Justice Department said in a filing Friday night in Washington, D.C.
“The deliberate failure to comply with a congressional subpoena — regardless of motivation — constitutes the crime of contempt,” the government said. “The Supreme Court has long affirmed that, once a congressional committee has directed a witness to comply with a congressional subpoena, it is the witness who risks contempt by continuing not to do so. ”
