Pelosi will sign House-passed Bannon contempt referral “shortly”
From Zach Cohen, Ryan Nobles and Annie Grayer
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will sign the just-passed House referral of Steve Bannon’s contempt finding soon, according to her office.
The House clerk will then transmit the referral to the Department of Justice today, once the measure is signed.
The resolution to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress passed largely along party lines
From Kristin Wilson
The House voted 229 to 202, largely along party lines, to find former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Nine Republicans voted with all 220 Democrats to pass the resolution: House Select Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney and Reps. Adam Kinzinger, Nancy Mace, Fred Upton, Peter Meijer, John Katko, Brian Fitzpatrick, Anthony Gonzalez and Jaime Herrera Beutler.
Rep. Greg Pence – the brother of the former Vice President – did not vote.
House votes to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal contempt
The House of Representatives voted to refer a criminal contempt charge against former President Trump’s longtime ally Steve Bannon to the Department of Justice.
Attorney General Merrick Garland will make the final decision on whether to prosecute.
The House vote comes after the Jan. 6 committee formally approved holding Bannon in contempt on Tuesday night. It will stand as a warning to potential witnesses about the consequences of not cooperating with the investigation.
Bannon has previously argued that he is unable to cooperate with the committee until matters of executive privilege are resolved by the courts.
His attorney has told the committee that “the executive privileges belong to President Trump” and “we must accept his direction and honor his invocation of executive privilege.”
“The plain fact here is that Mr. Bannon has no legal right to ignore the committee’s lawful subpoena,” Cheney said on Tuesday.
NOW: House voting on Bannon criminal contempt referral
The House now voting on a resolution to find Steve Bannon, one of former President Trump’s closest allies, in criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.
The action marks a significant escalation in how far the panel is willing to go to rebuke individuals who refuse to cooperate as it investigates the violent attack that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
If the resolution passes, it would be referred to the Justice Department. Attorney General Merrick Garland would make the final decision on whether to prosecute.
Rep. Schiff to Congress on the Jan. 6 attack: “We were here … We saw the bloody results”
Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, recalled the chaos of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack in his remarks today as members debated a resolution declaring Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.
“Congress is investigating the worst attack on our Capitol in over a century, made worse still by the fact it was carried out by our own people — people who had been misled to believe that their election had been stolen and that violence was now justified. People who are still being misled by a dangerous lie that may lead to even more bloodshed,” Schiff said.
He continued:
“This is not some theoretical matter. We were here. We heard the doors breaking, the glass shattering, the cries from outside the chamber. And we saw the bloody results: the officers injured and those who died.”
The House will soon vote on whether to approve the Jan. 6 committee’s report recommending Bannon, an ally of former President Donald Trump, be held for criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena to appear before the panel.
Members of the committee have said the panel believes Bannon has significant knowledge of the planning around the attack.
Here’s a reminder of the bipartisan lawmakers serving on the Jan. 6 committee
There are nine lawmakers on the Jan. 6 Select Committee. Seven of them are Democrats and two are Republicans.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson is the chair of the committee.
Rep. Liz Cheney is the vice chair. She and Rep. Adam Kinzinger are the only two Republicans on the committee. They have defied their party by joining the panel controlled by Democrats, and Cheney even sacrificed her own position in leadership in order to remain vocal and outspoken about the need to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Other members are Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin, Elaine Luria, Adam Schiff, Pete Aguilar, Stephanie Murphy and Zoe Lofgren.
GOP Rep. Kinzinger urges colleagues to support Bannon criminal contempt referral
From CNN’s Josiah Ryan
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger once again defied his party’s leadership and urged lawmakers to vote to support a recommendation to hold Steve Bannon in contempt, saying the former Trump strategist had shown “scorn” for the congressional subpoena.
Kinzinger went on to suggest that Bannon had displayed “utter contempt” for Americans’ right to know how the Jan. 6 attack on transpired.
“Voting on a criminal contempt resolution is not the position we hoped to be in, but Steve Bannon went out of his way to earn this resolution… and now we must approve it,” Kinzinger said.
The lawmaker representing Illinois is one of just two Republicans to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Kinzinger went on to say that Bannon showed contempt for both Congress and the American people.
“Mr. Bannon’s willful disregard for the select committee subpoena demonstrates his utter contempt for the American people’s right to know how the attacks on Jan. 6 came about,” said Kinzinger, adding, “No one, and I repeat no one, is above the law, and we need to hear from him.”
Cheney says GOP Rep. Banks has been sending letters to federal agencies signed as Jan. 6 committee member
From CNN’s Annie Grayer
After GOP Rep. Jim Banks spoke on the floor and complained about not being allowed to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Liz Cheney called Banks out for sending letters to federal agencies and falsely signing them as ranking member of the committee.
Cheney introduced a letter into the record dated Sept. 16, where she said Banks claimed he was ranking member of the committee.
Cheney is the ranking member of the committee, not Banks.
Banks was initially selected by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to serve on the committee, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoed Banks along with GOP Rep. Jim Jordan from serving on the committee.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney goes after her own party in floor debate of Bannon contempt resolution referral
From CNN’s Annie Grayer
Rep. Liz Cheney, who serves as the GOP vice chair of the House committee investigating Jan. 6, went after members of her own party for downplaying the attack on the Capitol and not believing in the mission of the committee during the debate of Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt referral.
“There are people in this chamber right now who were with me and with the rest of us on that day during that attack. People who now seem to have forgotten the danger of the moment, the assault on the Constitution, the assault on our Congress. People who you will hear argue that there is simply no legislative purpose for this committee for this investigation or for this subpoena,” she said.
Cheney then outlined why the committee needed information from Steve Bannon.
Cheney said the former President knew the riot was happening and took no action to stop it.
“President Trump knew it was happening. Indeed he may have been watching it all unfold on television. And yet he took no immediate action to stop it,” she said.
