15 Secretaries Blow Off Congressional Subpoenas While Subpoena Refusal Lands Trump Adviser In Jail
The New York Times headline seemed to gloat: “Stephen Bannon Reports to Prison After One Final Podcast Episode.”
“The show will be his last for four months, but the longtime adviser to Donald J. Trump has no intention of surrendering his influence,” the newspaper of record for the Democratic Party and the American left declared in its online subhead on Monday.
And so the corporate media stories went, reporting on Bannon’s failed attempt to secure an 11th-hour reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court. Bannon surrendered to federal authorities at a Connecticut federal prison to begin serving his time on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena.
Loathed by the left and ruling-class Republicans, the conservative firebrand became the latest casualty of a two-tiered system of justice in America.
As Bannon begins his term, 15 cabinet officials in the Biden administration continue to defy congressional subpoenas, and Merrick Garland, the attorney general of the United States, continues to insist he’s above Congress.
On June 13, U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, chairman of the Committee on House Administration, issued subpoenas to 15 administration cabinet members seeking documents related to Biden’s constitutionally suspect executive order commanding federal agencies to assist in voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns. The agency chiefs failed to comply by Steil’s deadline of June 26.
“Not a single agency has responded with their strategic plan or with any details about the implementation of the EO,” the Wisconsin Republican said in a statement to The Federalist. “Additionally, we know that as many as 40 outside groups assisted and advised the agencies on implementation – we have received nothing on the role these groups played in the design of the strategic plans.”
Seems like contempt of Congress. Will the cabinet secretaries be bunking with Bannon anytime soon? Don’t count on it.
What about Garland?
On Monday, House Republicans sued Garland, who has refused to turn over the audio recordings of a “confused” President Joe Biden’s interview with Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Hur about the president’s mishandling of classified documents. Republicans want a federal court to compel Garland to follow their subpoena.
The attorney general effectively told Republicans to go pound sand, citing executive privilege in refusing to release the audio — audio that could be particularly damaging to Biden after his disastrous debate performance last week.
“The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur’s report in February, which found evidence that Biden, a Democrat, willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted,” the Associated Press reported. What the story failed to note is that the special prosecutor deemed charges unwarranted because the octogenarian president “would likely present himself to the jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Hur told the House Judiciary Committee in March that the White House pushed him to change portions of his report thought to be particularly damaging to the false narrative that Biden’s mental acuity remained sharp.
Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro has been in jail since March for likewise ignoring a congressional subpoena. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear either man’s emergency appeal.
Before beginning his sentence, Bannon told reporters that he is a “political prisoner.”
Now, who will hold Garland and his colleagues in the Biden cabinet accountable for their contemptible conduct?
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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