The 'Steve Bannon Show' is staged in America.
Donald Trump's former strategist presented himself in court today to start his trial: he is accused of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the commission of inquiry into the January 6 assault on Capitol Hill.
If convicted, he faces a minimum of 30 days up to a maximum of two years in prison.
Dark jacket and shirt, gray trousers, Bannon greeted with a smile the small crowd gathered in front of the courthouse.
"It's a good day", he began flaunting confidence at the start of a crucial week, perhaps that of a showdown, for his former boss.
In addition to his trial, new revelations are expected on Thursday from the commission on January 6 which, in prime time, will provide Americans with a minute-by-minute account of what Trump did - and above all did not do - during the uprising.
On Friday, however, the former president will resume the scene with a rally in Arizona during which he will challenge from a distance his former number two Mike Pence, who is visiting the state on the same day.
For Bannon and Trump, the process that has opened is an important test case especially in view of the possible reapplication of the former president to the White House in 2024.
Branded by Time as the 'great manipulator' and referred to by many as 'Trump's Rasputin', Bannon tried to avoid prosecution to the end.
He even backtracked saying he was willing to testify before the commission on January 6 to tell his truth about him in a public hearing and broadcast live.
But his turnaround came too late.
Now he must defend himself before a jury and Trump-appointed district judge Carl Nichols.
It was Nichols who took advantage of Bannon's arms by rejecting his claim of 'executive privilege' and effectively limiting his defense to the mere understanding or not of the deadline set for responding to the commission's requests.
Bannon has always denied any responsibility for the January 6 attack, while bragging about being the "ideological architect" of the efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.
Removed from the White House in 2017 by the tycoon himself, Bannon never dumped entirely Trump and with his 'War Room' podcast - banned on major social platforms for violent content - has brought forward conspiracy theories.
Already in September 2020 he had gone so far as to outline the steps that the former president should have taken to overturn the vote.
On January 5, 2021, Trump and Bannon would have talked by phone at least twice.
And the former strategist was - according to rumors - at the Willard Hotel in Washington in the days leading up to the assault as a member of Trump's loyal 'command center', working day and night to deny Joe Biden the presidency.
In the days leading up to the fateful January 6, the special commission for the assault on Capitol Hill wants to hear from Bannon.
And the former strategist, after a year of refusals, is now ready to do it: he wants to tell his version of events, perhaps in agreement with Trump who, in a possible testimony of his former right-hand man, could count on the only voice friend in front of a "puppet" commission, as he often called it,
