WTAF!?
#SteveBannon wins #SCOTUS order likely to lead to dismissal of his #criminal #conviction for refusing to #Congress.
“Prodded” [instructed] by the #Trump admin, the justices threw out an appellate ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction for defying a #subpoena from the #House committee that investigated the #Jan6, 2021 #insurrection by Trump supporters.
#law #SeparationOfPowers #LegislativeBranch #oversight #ChecksAndBalances #SubpoenaPower
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-capitol-riot-bannon-trump-4a4cf324096fc1bfed204d42b54d191e
The move frees a trial judge to act on the #Trump admin’s pending request to dismiss Bannon’s conviction & indictment “in the interests of justice” [rewriting history].
The dismissal would be largely symbolic. #SteveBannon served a 4-month prison term after a #jury #convicted him of #contempt of #Congress in 2022. A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the conviction.
#SCOTUS #law #SeparationOfPowers #LegislativeBranch #oversight #ChecksAndBalances #SubpoenaPower
The #DOJ brought the case against Bannon during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, but it changed course after #Trump took office again last year.
#SteveBannon had initially argued that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of #ExecutivePrivilege. But the #House panel & the DOJ contended such a claim was dubious because Trump had fired Bannon…in 2017 & he was thus a private citizen when consulting with Trump in the run-up to the #Jan6 #insurrection.
That's not an accurate reading of the order.
The lower court could have always acted on the request to dismiss; this doesn't free it to do so.
Instead, this tells the lower court that it has to at least address the issues raised in the request. They're really weighty issues, too, so it's not largely symbolic. They stand to have broader application far outside of Bannon.
Now the lower court can deny the request, but it has to at least consider it.
