Republicans are putting their support behind Steve Bannon…
House leaders led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will file a legal brief in support of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s appeal of his conviction.
According to The Hill, The Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group — a House group made up of the Speaker and the leaders and whips of the majority and minority parties in the House, which directs the chamber in taking legal positions — voted along party lines to proceed with an amicus brief to the appeals court.
“The amicus brief will be submitted after Bannon files a petition for rehearing en banc and will be in support of neither party,” Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said in a joint statement. “It will withdraw certain arguments made by the House earlier in the litigation about the organization of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol during the prior Congress. House Republican Leadership continues to believe Speaker Pelosi abused her authority when organizing the Select Committee.”
Bannon was found guilty in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to sit for an interview with the panel and hand over documents. (RELATED: Steve Bannon Predicts Multiyear Prison Sentence For Donald Trump)
He is appealing the case to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bannon, whose prison sentence is scheduled to begin July 1, also filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court last week. (RELATED: Steve Bannon’s Appeal Denied – Supreme Court Showdown Ahead)
The move will be something of a legal test to see if Congress can be effective in trying to discredit or nullify actions completed in the past, under opposing party leadership.
Johnson publicly revealed his plans to file an amicus brief during interviews with Fox News and CNN on Tuesday evening.
“We’re working on filing an amicus brief in his appellate work there in his case because the Jan. 6 committee was, we think, wrongfully constituted,” Johnson told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. “We think the work was tainted. We think that they may have very well covered up evidence and maybe even more nefarious activities.”
“We’ve been investigating the committee itself; we disagree with how Speaker Pelosi put all that together; we think it violated House rules,” he continued. “And so we’ll be expressing that to the court, and I think it will help Steve Bannon in his appeal.”
The announcement from Johnson also follows a letter Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent to the Speaker earlier on Tuesday urging the Louisiana Republican to file an amicus brief in support of Bannon’s appeal.
“Given the Committee’s unprecedented, norm-shattering behavior, and partisan motives and structure, if you were to direct the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to file an amicus brief in support of Mr. Bannon’s June 21, 2024, Emergency Application for Continued Release Pending Appeal to the Supreme Court, it would have my full support,” Banks said.
Read the full letter below:
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