Rightwing media personality Steve Bannon, on trial for ghosting Congress, was a no-show on the witness stand Thursday and passed on even putting up a defense—a lame end for the guy who promised to make his criminal case the “misdemeanor from hell” for the U.S. government.
On Thursday morning, Bannon’s defense lawyers told a federal judge they would present no defense—nothing at all—to try to convince jurors that he wasn’t somehow guilty of ignoring a congressional subpoena. The Jan. 6 Committee subpoenaed Bannon last fall demanding that he turn over documents and testify about his role in trying to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results as well as the part he played in beating the proverbial war drums in the run-up to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol building…
Shortly after 2p.m., with the jurors outside of the courtroom, Schoen read aloud a statement laying out why he fellow defense attorney Evan Corcoran advised Bannon to forgo testifying at his own trial.
“He has wanted to testify publicly in this case under oath… exactly what the true facts of the case are. However, on the advice of counsel, he has decided not to testify because he understands he would be barred in telling the true facts,” Schoen said. “At all times, he believed what the law was requiring him to do.”
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