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

Steve Bannon has been found guilty on both counts of criminal contempt of Congress.

Count 1 is for failing to appear for a deposition in October 2021, and carries a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.

Count 2 is for refusing to provide records by the October 2021 deadline. It also carries a maximum one-year sentence.

The jury in the contempt trial of Steve Bannon has reached a verdict.

It comes roughly three hours after jury members left the courtroom to begin deliberations.

The contempt case against Steve Bannon is now in the jury's hands, after the government finished its rebuttal to the defense's closing argument.

Prosecutor Amanda Vaughn began the rebuttal by telling the jury, "The defendant wants to make this hard, difficult, and confusing. They want you to wonder, 'What am I missing?'"

"You're not missing anything," Vaughn said. "There were two witnesses because it's as simple as it seems ... as clear as black and white" on paper, she said.

She said Bannon did tell the committee he would not comply with the subpoena, but "that is not a negotiation." She said the committee repeatedly told Bannon that it rejected his claims and that he had to comply, but Bannon is now defending his actions by saying he had raised objections at the time.

"That is like a child continuing to argue with their parent after they've been grounded. They know they've been grounded, they can argue all they want; it doesn't change the fact that the decision has been made," she said. In this case, she said, the committee made the decision and has the authority to do so.

"This is not a mistake," Vaughn said of Bannon's actions. "It's a choice, it is contempt, and it is a crime."

She then pushed back on the defense's argument that Bannon's noncompliance can't be "willful" because the committee didn't pursue other options or take the matter to a court, as if the committee "had some sort of obligation" to go to court and "get their permission," she said.

"That's like saying the referee on a soccer field can't make calls on plays unless they go over to the baseball diamond next door and get the umpire's opinion first," Vaughn said. "The committee doesn't answer to former President Trump" -- it's a different branch of government, she said.

As for Bannon's recent "no harm, no foul" argument that he is now willing to testify publicly after Trump sent a letter saying he would waive executive privilege, Vaughn said, "That's not what the evidence in this case shows."

"That sudden decision to comply is nothing but a ploy. And it's not even a good one, because the defendant forgot to tell the committee he would supply them with documents," Vaughn said. Bannon is "pretending to comply now," she said, and "it's a waste of everyone's time."

"The committee told the defendant many times that defiance is a crime, but he didn't listen because he didn't care. He had contempt for them and the public service they're trying to perform," Vaughn said.

"He is guilty," she concluded.

At the conclusion of closing arguments, the judge released the one alternate juror remaining, leaving the 12 jurors to begin deliberations.

Prosecutor Molly Gaston began closing arguments by telling the jury, "This case is not complicated, but it is important."

"This is simply a case about a man -- that man, Steve Bannon -- who didn't show up," she said. "Why didn't he show up? He didn't show up because he did not want to, because he did not want to provide the Jan. 6 committee with documents, he did not want to answers its questions, and when it really comes down to it, he did not want to recognize Congress' authority or play by the government's rules."

"So why is this case important?" Gaston said. "It is important because our government only works if people show up. It only works if people play by the rules. And it only works if people are held accountable when they do not. And in this case, when the defendant deliberately chose to defy a congressional subpoena, that was a crime."

Calling Jan. 6 "a dark day in our nation's history" that included "violence against law enforcement" and efforts to disrupt the "peaceful transfer of power," Gaston said Congress created the Jan. 6 committee to "make sense of it" and to "make sure that it never happens again."

Regarding the subpoena that the committee sent Bannon, she said, "This document is not hard to understand. It tells the defendant what he is required to do, and when he is required to do it."

"The defendant did not produce a single document," Gaston said. "Was that a mistake? No, that was intentional."

She recited the back-and-forth correspondence between Bannon's then-lawyer, Robert Costello, and the committee, in which Bannon claimed that executive privilege "completely exempted him" and the committee repeatedly said that it "rejected" that claim and warned Bannon that he could face prosecution for contempt of Congress.

She noted that the privilege that Bannon claimed "could not possibly cover everything" that the committee was asking for, and that Bannon "made clear" in a social media post that "he was defying the committee to -- quote -- 'stand with Trump.'"

"This is the defendant celebrating his defiance," Gaston said. "And this shows the defendant knew that the subpoena required him to produce documents."

"This was not a mistake," Gaston said, telling the jury "he ignored" the subpoena.