“Two Shirts” Bannon Faces His Fate. Which Is Already Pretty Much Predetermined

After months of legal wrangling, the Steve Bannon contempt of congress trial kicked off today with jury selection, and right off of the bat it threw me for a loop.

In covering the trial today, MSNBC reported that jury selection had started with a goal of selecting 22 jurors  I almost had a coronary. The standard federal jury, just like a state jury, is 12 jurors, plus however many alternates the judge wants to seat.

Why? I have been on 2 civil trials, and in both, the judge empaneled 12 jurors and 2 alternates. In the Manson trial, which was scheduled to last at least 6 months, and eventually went 9 months, Judge Older settled on 12 jurors and 6 alternates, and burned through 3 of them. Why 22 jurors for a trial that should last about 3 days?

Now it makes sense. It was reported that after a long day, they settled on 22 jurors. And now, tomorrow, the judge and lawyers will go back with the jurors, and cull the herd from 22 down to 14, 12 jurors and 2 alternates. Why the judge took that extra step I do not know. But at least we’re back in the realm of reality again.

The trial itself is really a no brainer. In pre-trial hearings, Bannon’s lawyers raised several points designed more to delay the trial than to scuttle it. His lawyers argued that the J6 committee wasn’t legally constituted, therefore their subpoena was illegitimate. They argued that Bannon had defied the subpoena on orders of his idiot counsel. And they argued Trump’s nonexistent powers of Executive Privilege. 

And the judge blew them all out of the water. It reached the point that early last week, in a hearing, Bannon’s lawyer bitched to the judge that If he wasn’t going to leave them a defence to argue, why bother holding a trial? The judge agreed, and advised counsel to think about it over the rest of the week.

But as of today, Bannon is on trial. And over the weekend former US Attorney Barbara McQuade summed it up perfectly when she said on MSNBC that, Steve Bannon will never plead guilty, it’s not in his nature. But he also has no legal leg to stand on. Watch for him to insist on testifying, and then use a global media presence in the courtoon to espouse his views until the judge finally shuts him down.

So the outcome really isn’t at doubt. Bannon fought the law, and the law won. He’s going down for up to 2 years, and up to $200,000 in fines. What he thinks he gained by this ridiculous charade is beyond me, but I’ll tell you one thing. I’m looking to the media footage of Bannon, in steel bracelets, being perp walked from the building to the waiting Marshall’s van. Sometimes life is good.