Posted on 03/17/2022 7:51:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to produce internal records related to its decision to prosecute Steve Bannon, a win for the former Trump adviser, who maintains that he had a sound legal basis for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House’s Jan. 6 select committee.
U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols said Bannon’s team should be provided with Justice Department “statements or writings” that square the decision to charge Bannon with contempt of Congress with long-standing department legal opinions that say former presidential advisers are largely immune from congressional subpoenas.
Prosecutors had argued during a two-hour hearing that the Justice Department’s legal guidance, reflected in opinions issued by its Office of Legal Counsel, were not relevant to whether Bannon actually committed the contempt-of-Congress crimes he’s charged with. But Bannon’s lawyers have emphasized that they advised him repeatedly not to comply with the congressional subpoena because the department’s policy rendered the subpoena invalid.
Nichols raised a hypothetical scenario in which Congress subpoenaed Ron Klain, the chief of staff to President Joe Biden. Klain, he said, could refuse to appear, citing published OLC opinions that say senior presidential advisers are “absolutely immune” from compelled congressional testimony. But under the Justice Department’s argument in the Bannon case he noted, Klain could be prosecuted anyway — creating a conflict between the department’s internal policies and its prosecution decisions.
“Those two positions would be held at the same time,” said Nichols.
The documents the Justice Department provides could shed light on how it tried to square that inherent conflict, or whether it has issued subsequent, nonpublic legal guidance that would permit prosecuting Bannon for defying the select committee.
OLC opinions limiting Congress’ ability to demand testimony from executive branch officials have been crucial roadblocks to lawmakers for decades, even though they carry no formal legal weight. Trump deployed them repeatedly to derail investigations into his effort to press Ukraine for investigations of his political rivals, as well as his handling of the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Those opinions remain on the books, though superseding opinions might have been issued under Biden that have not been publicly disclosed. Nichols’ order requires the Justice Department to produce those documents to Bannon, “public or not.”
Continue reading…
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/16/judge-orders-doj-steve-bannon-documents-00017854
Does anyone expectthe Department of (East Coast) Jerks to produce those documents?
Hillarizing those documents is proceeding according to plan.
Announcement of “lost” documents in 3....2....1.....
When Revolution II comes, liberal lawyers can and must be at the top of the guillotine list.
Period.
Everybody knows that it's only Democratic presidential advisers that are largely immune from Republican congressional subpoenas.
"Accidently" wiped clean "like with a cloth". 🙄
Exactly, the corrupt DOJ and FBI just spit in the faces of judges whose decisions they don’t like. They are above the law.
The Left and the DemonRats went to take Steve out SO bad. He’s a fighter & I pray for him.
Let me guess: THEY get to keep their own communications under wraps, while demanding that even shopping lists of Trump and his associates are aired to the public.
Those papers have conveniently been misplaced.
“Trump deployed them repeatedly to derail investigations into his effort to press Ukraine for investigations of his political rivals…”
Trump was trying to do his JOB, which was to see if a prior executive branch official had broken the law (threatened to withhold aid if a prosecutor not fired for investigating his son) illegally. In retrospect, it wasn’t just justified, it was the POTUS responsibility to do so. Further, it has become apparent that the law was broken, the State department covered up the fact that the prosecutor was not corrupt, and our former official committed a criminal act.
#2. Right behind taking out their communication network, the media.
DOJ will drop the prosecution of Bannon in the near future.
Good. Let’s see some of the proper heads roll for a change.
The conflict is "politics".
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