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A lawyer for former President Donald Trump spoke to the FBI ahead of former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s decision to testify to the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, according to court records.
In a court filing submitted by federal prosecutors on Monday, the government revealed that FBI agents spoke to Trump attorney Justin Clark on June 29. The subject was Bannon’s upcoming criminal case on charges of contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over subpoenaed documents from eight months ago.
Bannon has defended his refusal to submit documents by citing executive privilege protections as they relate to conversations between him and Trump in December 2020. The committee has been interested in learning more about what Bannon knew ahead of the attack on the Capitol and what role he played in it.
However, Clark poked a major hole in Bannon’s defense by telling the FBI that Trump had never invoked executive privilege to shield their conversations. Clark also struck other blows to Bannon’s excuses for not complying with congressional subpoenas under claims of executive privilege.
“The former President’s counsel made clear to the Defendant’s attorney that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance,” prosecutors wrote in Monday’s filing.
In his FBI interview, Clark informed the agents that Bannon had misrepresented what Trump’s lawyers told him about any obligations he had to shield his conversations with the former president. Indeed, he added that Bannon’s position of noncompliance was invalid based on the advice provided to him by Trump’s lawyers.
Prosecutors said they notified Bannon’s legal team on June 30 about their conversations with Clark. Politico reported that the interview lasted about 45 minutes and did not touch on Trump himself or his conversations with Bannon.
Less than two weeks after Clark’s interview with the FBI, Trump sent a letter to Bannon waiving any executive privilege for possible testimony before Congress. A day later, Bannon announced that he would be interested in appearing before the committee and requested to give public testimony.
Despite his openness to testifying, Amanda Vaughn, an assistant U.S. attorney working the Bannon case, characterized Bannon’s about-face as less about a change of heart than”a last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.” Vaughn noted that the decision would not prevent his case from proceeding.
“The criminal contempt statute is not intended to procure compliance; it is intended to punish past noncompliance,” Vaughn wrote in the filing.
Bannon’s trial is scheduled to begin on July 18. A date has yet to be set for his testimony before the Jan. 6 committee.
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