Bannon, after guilty verdict, blasts Jan. 6 committee members
On his way out of the courtroom after being found guilty on both counts of criminal contempt of Congress, Bannon again blasted members of the Jan. 6 committee for not appearing as witnesses at his trial.
"I only have one disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show-trial committee, that [Jan. 6] committee, didn't have the guts to come down here and testify," Bannon said.
"We may have lost a battle here today, but we're not going to lose this war," he said. "[The jury] came to their conclusion about what was put on in the in that courtroom. But listen, in the closing argument, the prosecutor missed one very important phrase, right? 'I stand with Trump and the Constitution, and I will never back off that, ever.'"
Bannon's attorney David Schoen said that Bannon's defense team will appeal the case, saying, "This is just Round One."
"This is a bulletproof appeal," Schoen said. "Have you ever in another case seen a judge six times in the case [say] that he thinks the standard for willfulness is wrong?"
"You'll see this case reversed on appeal," Schoen said.
Schoen also criticized the prosecution's argument regarding executive privilege.
"They argued to the jury today that when a person gets a subpoena, and executive privilege is invoked, it's for Congress to decide whether the executive privilege is valid and how broad it is," said Schoen. "That's absolutely false."
"When a former president or a current president invokes executive privilege, it's presumptively valid," said Schoen. "It's not for Congress to decide that is not valid."
"All [the prosecution] had to prove was that he didn't show up," Schoen said. "That can't be the standard in a case, especially in a case that holds the potential for a jail sentence."
"The overreaching by the government in this case has been extraordinary on every level," Schoen said. "Shame on this office of the United States Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice for how far it went in this case."
-Laura Romero and Soo Rin Kim