Division of Justice says Trump never ever invoked government privilege in excess of Bannon

Juliegrace Brufke

July 11, 01:32 PM July 11, 01:32 PM

The Office of Justice reported Monday that previous President Donald Trump by no means invoked govt privilege about previous White Dwelling chief strategist Steve Bannon, who now says he is amenable to testifying prior to the Residence Jan. 6 committee when he faces prison time for previously refusing to do so.

The DOJ reported in a court docket filing that it has interviewed Trump's lawyer Justin Clark. The FBI job interview with Clark on June 29 is linked to the DOJ's criminal contempt scenario versus Bannon, a outstanding populist conservative who was an architect of Trump's upset 2016 earn about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Bannon was then a workers member in the Trump White House for 7 months right before parting approaches.

Bannon has stonewalled the Residence Jan. 6 committee for eight months, asserting government privilege

relating to presidential conversations, even though Bannon was long gone as a White Dwelling worker by Jan. 6, when professional-Trump rioters at the Capitol tried out to overturn Congress's certification of President Joe Biden's 2020 acquire. Bannon is set to go on demo on July 18 for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.

Bannon above the weekend reversed training course, declaring Trump had "waved" claims of government privilege, which would allow him to testify.

STEVE BANNON TELLS JAN. 6 COMMITTEE HE IS Willing TO TESTIFY

Bannon’s reversal on willingness to talk with the committee comes just times ahead of when jury assortment is predicted to consider location as portion of his contempt of Congress trial.

“While Mr. Bannon has been steadfast in his convictions, conditions have now changed,” Bannon law firm Bob Costello wrote in a letter to the Jan. 6 committee. “Mr. Bannon is inclined to, and indeed prefers, to testify at your public listening to.”

Bannon's change in class arrives in the wake of a Trump letter stating he would waive govt privilege if the legal defendant reached an arrangement to testify just before the panel.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a member of the choose committee, told CNN on Sunday that she expects “we will be hearing from [Bannon], and there are several questions that we have for him."

That would incorporate opinions by Bannon on his podcast in the times right before Jan. 6 that advised obliquely something significant and unexpected would choose place as Congress accredited the Electoral College or university votes that designed Biden the next president.