By Ryan J. Reilly -
NBC News
A jury on Friday convicted Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump in the White House, of two counts of contempt of Congress for having ignored subpoenas to testify and provide documents to the parliamentary committee investigating the assault on Capitol Hill by supporters of the former president on 6 January 2021.
Bannon faced a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail and up to a year in prison, and a fine of between $100 and $100,000.
“This case is not complicated, but it is important,” prosecutor Molly Gaston told the jury during closing arguments on Friday.
Bannon, she asserted, "did not want to recognize the authority of Congress."
The Justice Department tried to simplify the case, telling jurors that Bannon did not turn over the documents or testify before the Jan. 6 committee when he was summoned in October 2021 because he thought he was "above the law."
The prosecution called two witnesses (a January 6 committee staff member and an FBI special agent) and concluded its case on Wednesday.
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Bannon's attorneys declined to present his defense Thursday, but made it clear they planned to appeal if he was convicted.
In his closing arguments, attorney Evan Corcoran questioned whether the committee's subpoenas were actually signed by its chairman, Bennie Thompson, and raised "a serious question" about a witness's involvement in a book club.
The judge, Carl Nichols, repeatedly refused to delay the trial when the defense argued that investigative committee hearings would affect the jury and that Bannon could not testify over Trump's alleged claims of executive privilege.
The prosecution said Congress had good reason to want to investigate what happened during the Jan. 6 attack, and how such an attack could be prevented in the future.
“Our government only works if people show up.
It only works if people abide by the rules, and it only works if people are held accountable when they don't,” said Gastón.