Bannon ‘chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law,’ says prosecutor

A federal prosecutor on Friday accused Steve Bannon of refusing to cooperate with the House Jan. 6 Select Committee out of loyalty to former President Trump as a jury prepared to deliberate over whether to convict the right-wing political strategist of contempt of Congress charges.

Molly Gaston, an assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case, laid out her closing argument Friday, telling jurors that the case revolved around the simple question of whether Bannon willfully defied a subpoena from the select committee.

“The defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law,” Gaston said.
“He has contempt for our system of government and he does not think he needs to play by its rules,” she added.

The jury in the case began deliberating late Friday morning after both sides made their closing arguments.

The trial is winding to a close after testimony from just two prosecution witnesses, Kristin Amerling, chief counsel for the select committee, and FBI Special Agent Stephen Hart.

Bannon’s lawyers rested their case on Thursday without calling any witnesses.

Evan Corcoran, one of the defense attorneys, argued in his closing statement Friday that Bannon is innocent of the contempt charges and that prosecutors failed to show otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt.

“We didn’t feel the need to put on a defense,” Corcoran told the jurors.

Corcoran drew multiple objections from prosecutors during his closing argument when he suggested to the jury that politics played a role in the select committee’s decision to hold Bannon in contempt and in the U.S. Attorney office’s decision to bring charges.

He pointed to Amerling’s admission on the stand this week that she had been a longtime congressional staffer working for Democratic members, and that she and Gaston had overlapped nearly 20 years ago as staffers for former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

She also revealed the two of them had been a part of the same book club that consisted primarily of former Waxman staffers, but insisted that she and Gaston were not personally close.

Corcoran said the connection “raises questions” and is among the issues that jurors could consider as reasonable doubt.

“Make no mistake, I’m not against book clubs, but why did Ms. Amerling try to downplay her relationship with the prosecutor?” Corcoran said.

But Amanda Vaughn, another assistant U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case, dismissed the defense’s arguments as irrelevant to the ultimate question of whether Bannon purposefully defied the subpoena.

“There were two witnesses because it’s as simple as it seems,” Vaughn said in a rebuttal to Corcoran’s closing argument. “How much clearer could that subpoena have been?”