Steve Bannon, a onetime adviser to former President Donald Trump, turned himself in to federal authorities on Monday, three days after being indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress.
Bannon, 67, spoke with the media as he entered the FBI’s Washington field office and live streamed his remarks on Conservative social media site Gettr saying, “I don’t want anybody to take their eye off the ball what we do every day.”
“We got the Hispanics going on our side, African-Americans coming on our side,” he said.
“We’re taking down the Biden regime — every day the focus,” he emphasized while plugging some of his guests on his show “War Room.”
“Remember, signal, not noise,” he said. “This is all noise, that’s signal.”
Bannon was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury on two counts of contempt of Congress for flouting a subpoena issued by the Democrat-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Bannon had refused to either show up to testify or hand over documents requested by the committee, citing Trump’s argument that conversations between the two should be protected under “executive privilege.”
Bannon faces a minimum of 60 days in jail if convicted on both counts and could be sentenced to up to two years in jail and fined up to $2,000.
Bannon is expected to appear in federal court later Monday. His case has been assigned to US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
Last month, the House voted 229-202 to approve a resolution holding Bannon in contempt, saying he appeared to play a “multi-faceted role in the events of January 6th and the American people are entitled to hear his first-hand testimony regarding his actions.”
Trump has repeatedly slammed the panel’s efforts to obtain communications from his time as president and filed a lawsuit in October in an attempt to assert executive privilege. At the time of Bannon’s communications with Trump around the Capitol attack, he was not a government employee, having been fired as White House chief strategist in August 2017.
Another Trump ally could also face indictment, after the House select committee ordered former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to testify or face a contempt charge.
“Simply put, there is no valid legal basis for Mr. Meadows’s continued resistance to the Select Committee’s subpoena,” the committee wrote late Thursday.
Failing to show up to testify would be considered “willful non-compliance,” the committee said, which may lead to a recommendation of a Contempt of Congress charge.
