ELIZABETH FRANTZ/Reuters
Donald Trump’s attorney has blown a huge hole in Steve Bannon’s claims to have been covered by executive privilege when he refused to testify before the Jan. 6 select committee—dramatically raising the stakes in his forthcoming trial for contempt of Congress.
Bannon has refused since last October to comply with a subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 pro-Trump insurrection, prompting the criminal charges against him. But his lawyer, Bob Costello, announced Sunday night that Bannon would be appearing after all—after receiving a letter from the former president promising to waive executive privilege so his former White House adviser could, in theory, set the record straight.
In a bombshell revelation in the early hours of Monday, D.C. prosecutors announced that Trump’s attorney, Justin Clark, had been interviewed by the FBI on June 29 and had confirmed Trump had never invoked executive privilege to stop Bannon from testifying.