Lawyers for Steve Bannon told jurors about his offer to testify.
It cost the House panel a lot of time, prosecutors said.
A lawyer for the House said that Bannon hadn't turned over subpoenaed records.
Steve Bannon scored a rare win at his trial on Wednesday, after a string of rulings limited his defense arguments. Over the objection of prosecutors, a federal judge allowed him to raise his recent offer to testify before the House committee.
It was a blow to prosecutors, who argued that evidence of Bannon's recent offer to testify was irrelevant and could cause confusion for the jury. After months of stonewalling the House committee, prosecutors appeared to have a plan to make the offer to testify backfire against him.
The July 9 offer to testify in the congressional panel's dealings with the former Trump strategist was made by his defense lawyers. The defense lawyers presented a letter from Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the House January 6 committee, that said the panel would identify a date for the deposition once he turned over subpoenaed records.
By this sentence, is Chairman Thompson indicating to Steven Bannon that he's open for a deposition at a future date pursuant to the September 23, 2020 subpoena?
Amerling said that it was indicating that he was open to a deposition.
The offer was made to argue that the deadline to respond to the House committee was ambiguous. The questioning created an opening for prosecutors to argue that the House committee spent too much time on the issue.
If he had complied with the subpoena, how much time would the committee have had to review information and follow up leads?
Amerling said that the House committee is currently authorized to last for an additional five months.
The committee now only has five after 14 months.
He asked if the offer to turn over the documents was part of the offer to testify.
Amerling said that it didn't.
Since his sudden offer to comply on July 9, have the defendants provided any documentation? The man then asked.
Amerling said that he wouldn't unless he provided some.
After months of not turning over records or answering questions under oath, Bannon offered to testify. He said the about-face was due to a letter from the former president.
Legal experts said that he was no longer involved in the Trump administration by the time of the Capitol attack and the weeks leading up to it. Legal experts said that it would have been necessary for Bannon to appear for questioning and invoke executive privilege on a question-by-question basis.
The FBI was told by Trump's lawyer that the former president had never invoked executive privilege.
After his indictment on criminal contempt of Congress charges, Steve Bannon did not want to testify before the House committee. The Supreme Court in January rejected Trump's bid to block the release of White House records.
The question was posed if Bannon would comply with the subpoena in February, March, April, or June. Amerling said no at the mention of every month.
At the end of her questioning, she asked if Bannon had changed his mind about testifying before the House committee.
I think the offer came into my inbox a little after midnight on July 10.
How long before the trial began? "Vaughn, what do you think?"
Amerling said it would take a matter of days.
FBI Stephen Hart was called to testify. Prosecutors rested their case shortly before 5 pm
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