The Department of Justice took steps Monday to dismiss its criminal investigation into a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, his former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
A motion calling for dismissal, signed only by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, was filed Monday in D.C.’s district court. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer also petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday to vacate the lower court’s decision, which would effectively clear Bannon’s record.
“The government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” Pirro wrote in the motion.
Bannon, who served as an adviser to Trump during his first term, was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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Bannon, who now hosts a podcast, seemed to predict the violent attack on the Capitol building the day before it happened, posting that “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
The comments were part of what triggered the committee to issue a subpoena.
“As the prosecutor stated, Steve Bannon ‘chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law,’” members of the House Jan. 6 committee said in a 2022 statement. “Just as there must be accountability for all those responsible for the events of January 6th, anyone who obstructs our investigation into these matters should face consequences.”
Bannon served four months in federal prison in 2024, after two years of attempted appeals, and ultimately appealed to the Supreme Court last year to overturn his conviction.
Trump, at the time, called Bannon’s sentence a “Total and Complete American Tragedy” and suggested the committee members themselves be indicted for “ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR ‘FINDINGS!’”
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