The House vote sends the matter to the US attorney’s office in Washington,where it will now be up to prosecutors in that office to decide whether to present the case to a grand jury for possible criminal charges.
On Tuesday,the January 6 committee voted 9-0 to recommend the contempt charges after Bannon missed a scheduled interview with the panel last week,citing a letter from Trump’s lawyer that directed him not to answer questions.
The committee notedthat Bannon did not work at the White House at the time of the attack,and that he not only spoke with Trump before it but also promoted the protests on his podcast and predicted there would be unrest. On January 5,Bannon said that “all hell is going to break loose”.
The partisan split over Bannon’s subpoena — and over the committee’s investigation in general — is emblematic of the raw tensions that still gripCongress nine months after the Capitol attack. Democrats have vowed to comprehensively probe the assault in which hundreds of Trump’s supporters battered their way past police,injured dozens of officers and interrupted the electoral count certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
Lawmakers on the investigating committee say they will move swiftly and forcefully to punish anyone who won’t cooperate with the probe.
“We will not allow anyone to derail our work because our work is too important,” Thompson said ahead of the vote.