Criminal trial of Steve Bannon gets under way in Washington

The criminal trial of Steve Bannon, the former senior aide to president Donald Trump, has begun at the US district court in Washington.

Mr Bannon faces charges for not co-operating with the committee of the US House of Representatives that is investigating the events of January 6th last year when the US Congress was attacked by supporters of Mr Trump in a bid to delay the certification of the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election the previous November.

Mr Bannon has been accused of criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by the committee which had sought his records and testimony.

The process of selecting the jury in the case started on Monday morning.

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Mr Bannon was indicted last November on two counts of criminal contempt, one month after the US justice department received a formal referral from Congress relating to his non-co-operation with its activities.

Each count carries a minimum of 30 days and up to one year in prison. He could also face a fine of $100,000.

More than a week ago, Mr Bannon, who was a top adviser to Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and later served as White House chief strategist, notified the committee that he was now willing to give evidence to the committee.

His former lawyer said this was because Mr Trump had waived claims of executive privilege over dealings between the two men, which had prevented Mr Bannon testifying before the committee.

Critics had maintained that Mr Bannon was a private citizen at the time of the January 6th attack and could not fall within the ambit of any executive privilege claim.

Committee members demanded that Mr Bannon provide records in his possession that could be relevant to its investigation.

Mr Bannon had unsuccessfully tried to persuade US district judge Carl Nichols to delay the trial, arguing that the committee’s high-profile public hearings could make it harder to assemble an impartial jury.

The judge has ruled that Mr Bannon cannot use executive privilege as a defence and cannot claim he relied on his attorney’s advice when he declined to testify or provide records. He has left open the possibility that Mr Bannon could present evidence of his recent offer to co-operate with the panel as a defence.

The committee presented evidence last week that Mr Bannon spoke with Mr Trump at least twice on the day before the January 6th attack last year. The committee also played a clip of Mr Bannon saying on a right-wing talkshow on January 5th that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow”. Mr Bannon made those comments after his first call with Mr Trump, the committee said.

Mr Bannon separately was charged in 2020 with defrauding donors to a private fundraising effort to build a wall along the US-Mexican border which had been promoted by Mr Trump.

The former president subsequently issued a pardon to Mr Bannon before that case could go to trial.