Mark Meadows Muffs, Merrick Still Missing — Justice Not Timely At All (UPDATE — Bannon Indicted!)

November 12, 2021

*UPDATE BELOW*

Democracy and the law seem worlds apart nowadays with Republicans doing just about anything they want without a peek of a pushback from any legal office — Steve Bannon is still shitting freely weeks after being held in contempt of Congress.
And the roll call builds if there’s no jailhouse rock.

Today, another asshole snubs the summons:

Nutshell story via NBC News this morning:

Meadows did not appear for the deposition on Capitol Hill, according to two sources familiar with his absence. It was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET and about ten minutes later, about a dozen committee staff and investigators walked out of the room along with the stenographer.

His failure to show up comes a day after his attorney, George Terwilliger, suggested that Meadows had planned not to cooperate

“Contrary to decades of consistent bipartisan opinions from the Justice Department that senior aides cannot be compelled by Congress to give testimony, this is the first President to make no effort whatsoever to protect presidential communications from being the subject of compelled testimony,” he said in a statement.
“Mr. Meadows remains under the instructions of former President Trump to respect longstanding principles of executive privilege. It now appears the courts will have to resolve this conflict.”

Pure, 100-percent bullshit.

Further from the Associated Press:

Meadows, a former GOP congressman from North Carolina, is a key witness for the panel. He was Trump’s top aide in the time between Trump’s loss in the November election and the insurrection, and was one of several people who pressured state officials to try and overturn the results.
He was also by Trump’s side during much of the time, and he could provide information about what the former president was saying and doing during the attack.

“You were the president’s chief of staff and have critical information regarding many elements of our inquiry,” the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote in a letter accompanying the Sept. 23 subpoena to Meadows.
“It appears you were with or in the vicinity of President Trump on Jan. 6, had communications with the president and others on January 6 regarding events at the Capitol and are a witness regarding activities of that day.”

In a letter to Meadows’ lawyer on Thursday, Thompson wrote that failure to appear at a deposition on Friday and produce documents would be viewed by the committee as “willful non-compliance” and that the panel will consider contempt charges.
Meadows would be the second of the committee’s witnesses to be held in contempt after the House voted to hold Bannon in contempt last month.

Whether either of them would face consequences will be up to the Justice Department, which has so far not said whether it will prosecute Bannon’s case.
The panel has been been pushing the department to do so, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear that his lawyers will make an independent decision.

One wonders what the shit is the deal here with Garland. Of course, Bannon has so far escaped any kind of blow-back and is pod-casting full steam, blubbering nonsense six days a week. He’s such a loudmouth asshole.
Although Jonathan Shaub and Benjamin Wittes wrote yesterday at LawFare, the question of Bannon is ‘a complicated, nuanced question with a variety of components that the Justice Department needs to work through,’ Garland knows that time is running out and should make some kind of move — its’ been more than three weeks since Bannon’s no show. The DOJ’s non-action should reverse, and at least show there’s some life there.

Especially since it’s way-obvious the insurrection/riot at the US Capitol was planned and ready to roll since T-Rump lost the election — Garland is shitting on American democracy.

Question is of breaking the law and being held accountable::

Molly Jong-Fast at The Atlantic this morning and a reality-shot at our current ugly reality:

Earlier today, Donald Trump defended the insurrectionists who broke into the Capitol, chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” and built an actual gallows.
Here’s what he said about Pence to ABC’s Jon Karl: “How can you — if you know a vote is fraudulent, right? — how can you pass on a fraudulent vote to Congress? How can you do that? And I’m telling you: 50/50, it’s right down the middle for the top constitutional scholars when I speak to them. Anybody I spoke to — almost all of them at least pretty much agree, and some very much agree with me — because he’s passing on a vote that he knows is fraudulent. How can you pass a vote that you know is fraudulent?”

While upsetting, this news cycle is not all that surprising. After all, we’re sort of used to Trump defending the indefensible. Over the Trump administration’s four long years, we saw a lot of Republicans being low-key shady and sometimes high-key shady, from alleged violations of the Hatch Act, to self-dealing, to election interference, to an attempted coup.
It’s no longer particularly surprising when a member of Trumpworld is arrested, indicted, or pardoned.

Alarming as this all was, I always thought that at least once Democrats took over, they would hold Republicans responsible for their actions.
After all, Democrats are the good guys, the ones who follow the rules, right?

Well, Democrats now control the White House, the Senate, and the House, and I’m not seeing much in the way of holding Republicans accountable. There are many reasons why enforcing the law is the right thing to do.
It’s the law, for one, and the law is Merrick Garland’s job.
Another reason: It’s clear that if Democrats don’t enforce the law, no one will. It’s hard to imagine Republicans holding Trump accountable for trying to steal the election when they continue to pretend that they “didn’t see the tweet” or, as we’ll probably hear today, the tape of Trump defending violent insurrection.

As Brian Klaas, an associate professor of global politics at University College London, told me, “Rule of law requires prosecution of criminals, even, or especially, when there are political risks involved. Letting prominent Republicans ‘get away with it’ out of a misguided attempt at bipartisanship doesn’t just undercut rule of law; it also will make the GOP’s descent into authoritarianism accelerate.”
…
“If Garland decides not to prosecute [Steve] Bannon [after Congress held him in contempt for defying a subpoena], it’s an open invitation to defiance,” legal analyst Elie Honig told me.
“Other Trump loyalists — Meadows, Clark and the rest — can freely defy the committee without meaningful consequence.” Another reason we as a culture tend to prosecute crimes.
…
If Merrick Garland is afraid of raising the temperature in this country, he should understand that the mercury is already boiling. The person who could lower it is Rupert Murdoch, but he won’t, because there’s more money to be made.
Democrats need to restore democratic norms, and that’s it.
This isn’t about being comfortable: This is about whether or not we’ll be able to keep Democracy.
Right now, I’m not so sure we will.

And the music of freedom dies:

Once again, here we are…

UPDATE

Finally, a federal grand jury this afternoon has indicted Steve Bannon:

Statement from the DOJ:

“Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
“Today’s charges reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”

“As detailed in the indictment, on Sept. 23, 2021, the Select Committee issued a subpoena to Mr. Bannon,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia.
“The subpoena required him to appear and produce documents to the Select Committee, and to appear for a deposition before the Select Committee. According to the indictment, Mr. Bannon refused to appear to give testimony as required by subpoena and refused to produce documents in compliance with a subpoena.”

In its subpoena, the Select Committee said it had reason to believe that Bannon had information relevant to understanding events related to Jan. 6. Bannon, formerly a Chief Strategist and Counselor to the President, has been a private citizen since departing the White House in 2017.

Each count of contempt of Congress carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Reportedly, Bannon will turn himself in on Monday.

(Image out front by illustrator and portrait painter, Tim O’Brien, and can be found here).

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