Bannon Testimony has DOJ Spooked, with Department Pushing to Silence Media Magnate
While some Democrats have applauded the boldness of the select committee investigating January 6th, there are undercurrents of concern about the group’s actions beginning to surface.
For starters, their willingness to call some of the right wing media’s most potent orators to the witness stand, where they will almost certainly befuddle and obliterate those who seek to do harm to their reputations.
In other words: Subpoenaing Roger Stone, Alex Jones, and Steve Bannon is likely an exampled of the committee biting off more than they can realistically chew.
It seems as though the Department of Justice agrees with this assessment, and they are taking action to prevent the Democrats on the committee from embarrassing themselves.
Prosecutors have accused former President Donald Trump’s ex-adviser Steve Bannon of attempting to try his criminal case through the media instead of in court and have asked a judge to limit what Bannon can release publicly throughout the case, according to a new filing in DC District Court.
Bannon is trying to convince a judge not to bar him and his lawyers from sharing documents he receives from the Justice Department with the public before his trial.
The DOJ prosecutors said in the filing Sunday some of those records must stay private while the case is pending, because they include internal communications between congressional staffers and notes of FBI interviews with witnesses who could testify against Bannon at trial.
The DOJ would rather work in darkness.
“Allowing the defendant to publicly disseminate reports of witness statements will have the collateral effect of witness tampering because it will expose witnesses to public commentary on their potential testimony before trial and allow a witness to review summaries of other witnesses’ statements recounting the same event or events,” the prosecutors wrote on Sunday.
The move reeks of cowardice on behalf of the Biden administration, and flies in the face of transparency and understanding.
