Beautiful Virgin Islands

Friday, Sep 11, 2026

A Federal Grand Jury Indicted Steve Bannon For Contempt Of Congress

A Federal Grand Jury Indicted Steve Bannon For Contempt Of Congress

The close Trump adviser had ignored a subpoena as part of the House’s investigation into Jan. 6.

Steve Bannon, the longtime close adviser to former president Donald Trump, was indicted Friday on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to provide documents and testimony to the special committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Each misdemeanor count carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a minimum term of 30 days behind bars. A date hasn’t been set yet for Bannon’s first court appearance.

The indictment comes just over three weeks after the House voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt and refer the case over to the Justice Department to decide whether to take the matter to a grand jury. Earlier this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland had been asked about the status of the case and demurred, only saying generally that officials were following the normal review process.

Bannon had refused to comply with a congressional subpoena issued by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was scheduled to appear before the panel, but instead his lawyers sent a letter claiming Bannon was “exercising executive privilege” per the instruction of Trump’s lawyer. Trump himself has attempted to use executive privilege to block records from his administration being released to the panel, which is now the subject of a court fight.

Bannon was the first former Trump aide to defy the panel’s request based on Trump’s claim of executive privilege. His indictment raises the stakes for other former aides who defy the committee at Trump’s direction. Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, did not appear for a House panel deposition scheduled for Friday.

“Mr. Meadows’s actions today — choosing to defy the law — will force the Select Committee to consider pursuing contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena,” Reps. Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney, cochairs of the committee, wrote in a statement.

The indictment was signed by the newly confirmed US attorney in Washington, Matthew Graves, marking one of his first politically significant actions as the head of the office that’s taken the lead this year in prosecuting hundreds of cases related to the Capitol riot.

Trump and Bannon had something of a hot and cold relationship during Trump’s time in the White House. They had a falling out in 2018 over insults Bannon was quoted as saying about Trump’s family in Michael Wolff’s book Fire and Fury, but reportedly had reconciled by the time Trump left office, after Bannon backed his voter fraud lies on his own popular podcast. Bannon at the time was facing federal criminal charges on allegations that he committed fraud as part of a “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort; Trump pardoned him hours before Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20.

Bannon did not respond to a request for comment about the indictment.

Contempt of Congress prosecutions are extremely rare. A Congressional Research Service report from 2017 noted that previous attorneys general have directed the US attorney in Washington to not prosecute executive branch officials who were acting at the direction of a president who asserted executive privilege. Trump is not, however, president anymore, and has so far lost in court trying to argue that he should be able to claim that privilege to block document demands by the committee even though Biden has refused to support it.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Merz Rebukes AfD Expansion in Saxony-Anhalt
OpenAI Unveils GPT-6 and Says: "We May Already Have Reached AGI"
Congressman Accused Andrew of Sex Crimes in the United States
Donald Trump: "I'm Glad Harry and Meghan Left the United States"
Spicy Food Is Linked to Lower Death Risk — but It Is Not a Miracle Cure
AfD Enters Saxony-Anhalt Election at 41% in Historic Test for German Politics
Gen Z Turns to Investing as America's First-Home Dream Moves Further Out of Reach
TSA Unveils Major Airport-Security Overhaul as It Drops Gold+ Privatization Plan
CIA Chief Warned Russia Against Attacking NATO in Secret Moscow Mission
Raheem Sterling Charged With Dangerous Driving After Lamborghini Crash
The Secret Dolly Parton Kept Until Her Death: "She Was Much Sicker Than She Let On"
Glacier Collapse, Not Earthquake, Triggered Deadly Nepal-Tibet Flood
Turnbull Warns AUKUS Could Leave Australia Without Promised Nuclear Submarines
California Billionaires Pour More Than $150 Million Into Fight Over Proposed Wealth Tax
German Broadcaster Goes Dark to Warn AfD Could End Its Saxony-Anhalt Service
Badenoch Plans Major Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle as Tories Struggle in Third Place
Prime Minister Andy Burnham to Give Ukraine Classified Storm Shadow Blueprints for Domestic Missile Production
UK Graduate Job Vacancies Plunge 45% to Lowest Levels on Record
Iranian Hackers Shut Down British Power Plant for Four Days in Landmark Cyber Attack
Novak Djokovic Reveals Relentless Self-Doubt and Rejects Retirement in New Documentary
Trump Imposes 50% Tariffs on Canadian Goods After Bilateral Trade Talks Collapse
Australia Combines Indigenous Fire Knowledge With Satellite Tech to Combat Catastrophic Wildfires
Father and Son Jailed in Scotland Over £900,000 Airport Cannabis Smuggling Operation
UK Fraud Reports Surge Sevenfold as Criminals Exploit QR Codes in Parking Meters and Phishing Emails
Brighton Thrash Aston Villa in Four-Goal Opening Half as Manchester City Trail Bournemouth
Erin Patterson Appeals Triple Murder Convictions After Hotel Mixed Sequestered Jury With Prosecution
The rise and fall of Hui Ka Yan, China’s richest man
Woke: Britain Considers Plain Packaging for Cigars as Specialist Shops Warn of Industry Collapse
Britain's Public-Service Productivity Remains Below 2019 as £80 Billion Output Gap Fuels WFH Debate
Mandelson Epstein Case in Jeopardy as U.S. Files Stay Out of Reach
Prince Harry and Six Others Ordered to Pay £9.5 Million After High Court Defeat
Petrol Bombs Set Luxury Cars Alight Outside Birmingham Wedding as Police Hunt Three Men
Bitcoin Surges Toward $80,000 as Short Squeeze and ETF Inflows Ignite Crypto Rally
Twenty-Nine US States Take Meta to Trial Over Alleged Child Addiction on Instagram and Facebook
Former Scottish National Party Executive Peter Murrell Jailed for Five Years Over £400,000 Embezzlement
Moderna and Merck's Personalized Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Historic Late-Stage Melanoma Trial
Prince Harry and Meghan to Move Back to Britain With Their Children
England and Wales Have Fewer Than 1,800 Prison Places Left for Men
Suspected People Smuggler Arrested After Investigation Identified Him
Children's Doctors Warn That Vaping Can Lead Young People to Smoking
Hundreds of Thousands of Students Receive GCSE and Vocational Results Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Here Is What Can Never Happen in Your Country: Taiwan Is Giving Money to All Its People Because It Collected Too Much Tax
UK Inflation Rises to 2.9% as Energy Bills Jump
UK Issues New Conduct Guide for Asylum Seekers on Consent and Respect
A Sleepless Night on Wall Street: Nasdaq to Begin Nearly Round-the-Clock Trading
"The First in the World": 69-Year-Old Protested Artificial Intelligence—and Went to Jail
Ukraine's Ousted Defence Minister Calls for Wartime Presidential Election
China’s Lifelike AI Humans Move From Livestreams Into Real-World Service Roles
Sarah Ferguson Reportedly Retreats to Late Ex-Boyfriend's Swiss Chalet
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
×