Steve Bannon: Capitol Assault Committee wants Trump advisors to court

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Steve Bannon (2017 White House)

Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP

Corresponding threats have been around for days - but now legal steps are getting closer.

The committee of inquiry into the processing of the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th wants to bring the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to court.

The committee unanimously adopted a report on Tuesday evening (local time) finding Bannon's disregard for Congress.

The committee in the US House of Representatives is to investigate the background to the attack on the Capitol.

Supporters of Trump stormed the seat of the US Congress in Washington on January 6th.

Five people were killed, including a police officer.

Bannon is suspected of having prior knowledge of plans for violent protests.

One of the things he said in his podcast the day before the Capitol was stormed was: "Tomorrow all hell breaks loose."

The next step is for the House of Representatives to vote on it before the case goes to court.

The house is dominated by the Democrats from US President Joe Biden.

In the first months of the presidency of the Republican Donald Trump, Bannon was his chief strategist and had a decisive influence on his election campaign.

Bannon had failed to comply with a summons before the committee on Thursday last week.

He invoked the president's prerogative to withhold certain information from Congress or the courts - the so-called executive privilege.

Lawsuit by the ex-president against the release of documents

The report now adopted says that even if Trump could seek this privilege, it would not relieve Bannon of his duty to testify before the committee.

Bannon's refusal has no legal basis and violates legal provisions.

Donald Trump himself had only filed a lawsuit on Monday.

Here, too, he invokes the so-called executive privileges and wants to prevent the White House from passing documents on to the committee.

The White House under Trump's successor Joe Biden had already made it clear at the beginning of October that it would cooperate with the committee and refuse to accept the reference to executive privileges.

Most recently, the White House announced that in the Steve Bannon case, too, there were no reasons why the ex-strategist should not testify before the committee.

jok / dpa