The House filed a brief Monday in the appeal WarRoom host Steve Bannon that seeks to resurrect legal arguments regarding the legitimacy of the House select panel investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The filing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit argues that the committee was improperly set up, breaking the chamber’s rules, according to court documents.
Bannon is currently serving a four-month sentence that began July 1 while appealing his convictions on two counts of contempt of Congress. According to Roll Call, “The House’s brief, however, does not address Bannon’s other arguments but focuses on the committee’s legitimacy, which multiple courts have previously rejected.”
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Roll Call reported:
Bannon was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022. He has fought the conviction since, arguing that he relied on his attorney’s advice that executive privilege prevented him from cooperating with the subpoena.
In May, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit found that there was no executive privilege involved in the subpoena and that Bannon had a duty to at least respond rather than ignore it. Bannon has since appealed that ruling to the full D.C. Circuit, leading to the House weighing in on Monday.
The only other witness prosecuted for contempt of Congress in the Jan. 6 select panel’s investigation, former trade advisor Peter Navarro, recently finished his four-month sentence. Navarro also has a pending appeal of his conviction on different legal arguments.
House Republicans have for years criticized the panel, including a resolution last month from Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., that would purport to rescind the subpoenas issued by the panel to Bannon and other recalcitrant witnesses who refused to cooperate.
The brief argues that the committee should have included 13 members, with five from the Republican minority, and had a ranking minority member instead of a vice chair to issue lawful subpoenas. "In this House’s view, none of these things happened,” the brief states, something Bannon has often repeated on his program.
Last month, Republican House leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, supported Bannon’s appeal despite opposition from Democratic leaders.
US Rep Tim Burchett (R-TN) explained to the WarRoom audience on Tuesday that the bill filed aims to invalidate the January 6th committee and its subpoenas. He argued that the committee was “not formed like any other committee” and was “invalid” due to its unusual composition, which excluded certain members and included controversial figures like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. Burchett said, “The bill’s been filed to… disqualify the committee as an invalid committee,” and if successful, it could lead to Bannon’s wrongful conviction being overturned: “The subpoenas would be invalid, and then Steve Bannon’s wrongful conviction would be invalid.”
He expressed frustration with the slow legal process, stating, “It’s an amicus brief, of course, and it goes before the courts and then it takes their own sweet time.” Burchett also reflected on the broader implications of wrongful imprisonment, saying, “In this country, imprisoning somebody wrongfully is about the greatest breach of trust that you can have,” and added, “I can’t imagine stealing time from somebody’s life and that’s exactly what they’re doing to Steve Bannon.”
Burchett criticized the delay in legislative action, noting, “I mean, you guys managed to pass a bill to ban gas stoves… but Steve Bannon, it was clear, he’s going to go to prison. Why did they wait around so long?”
For more context, watch the full segment featuring Tim Burchett:
