Steve Bannon's defiance of the House panel was a choice, according to prosecutors.
The lawyer for the Trump ally argued that there was no chance of him testifying in October 2021.
The criminal trial was supposed to be delayed before opening arguments.
Kicking off the trial of Steve Bannon, federal prosecutors stressed their view of the case's simplicity, as he received a deadline to answer a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack
The man refused to comply.
The case was about the person thumbing his nose at the orderly processes of the government, said the assistant US attorney.
She said it was that easy.
The House panel continues to investigate the Capitol insurrection.
The House committee wanted to question Bannon about his knowledge of the events leading up to the insurrection at the Capitol and gave him due dates to do so. She said that he deliberately snubbed the House panel in spite of warnings that he could face criminal charges.
It wasn't an option. It was not a request and it was not an invitation. "It was a requirement." The defendants decided he was above the law.
He was not stuck on the broken down Metro car. She said he didn't follow the rules.
The opening argument seemed to head off the expected defense that the House committee deadlines were not fixed.
Evan Corcoran, the defense lawyer for Steve Bannon, highlighted his time as an advisor to the former president and his involvement with a media company in his opening argument.
The evidence is going to be clear, no one believed that Steve Bannon was going to appear on October 14, 2021.
A grand jury indicted Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress, each carrying a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. He said the charges were politically motivated.
The House of Representatives has a lot of politics. Every decision that they make is invaded by politics.
Prosecutors called the House January 6 committee's deputy staff director and chief counsel, who stressed the "urgency" of the congressional panel's inquiry, following opening arguments. The January committee is expected to be dissolved if Republicans regain control of the House.
The Select Committee is looking at a violent assault on the United States Capitol, on law enforcement officials, on our democratic institutions. We have a limited amount of time.
After a rough start to the trial, federal prosecutors and the judge disagreed over what evidence could be presented to the jury. The defense team needed a month to adjust its strategy in light of what he called a "seismic shift" in the case after multiple failed attempts to push back the trial.
There are many moving pieces. We haven't done the kind of defense preparation we would have.
The judge turned down the request. The judge briefly entertained a one-day delay while defense lawyers and prosecutors wrangled over what to black out in the evidence shown to jurors.
Ahead of the trial, Nichols handed down a number of rulings that limited Bannon's defenses, preventing him from arguing that executive privilege excused his defiance of the House committee. The deadlines to respond to the House January 6 committee's subpoena were not fixed, and could be raised as a defense.
"I don't think it's clear," he said.
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