Hillary Clinton took notice this week of the criminal contempt proceedings launched against Steve Bannon. The former top Trump adviser and continued ally to the former president has been indicted on two charges of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Bannon justified his refusal to comply by pointing to claims from Trump of executive privilege, but executive privilege is a concept generally used to shield internal government deliberations, and Bannon didn’t work for the government during the time under consideration.
Author Jennifer Hayden jokingly posted on Twitter last week about how — after all the hullabaloo from Republicans — it’s Trump allies rather than Hillary Clinton who’ve faced actual criminal proceedings. As Hayden put it, “You know who is not going to jail and has never been indicted for anything? Hope you have a great weekend @HillaryClinton.” It’s true, of course: Hillary Clinton has never been indicted for anything, although that’s certainly not for a lack of trying from Republicans. The pointed contrast is clear — Hillary responded to Hayden’s wishes for her to have a nice weekend by writing:
‘Thanks, it was quite restful.’
Thanks, it was quite restful. https://t.co/COcH6UQauz
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 15, 2021
Bannon surrendered to federal authorities on Monday at a Washington, D.C. office of the FBI. Before heading inside, he taped a message for his supporters in which he proclaimed the proceedings against him to be mere “noise” as opposed to the “signal” represented by the activism in which he and his allies and those on their side are engaged — which is all nonsense. There’s not some highfalutin underpinning to all of this — there’s no 4D chess game in which Trump, Bannon, or whoever on earth else is winning against the deep state, or Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden, or whatever other fanciful enemy gets dreamed up next. They tried to take down the government of the United States, and now they’re getting a reality check. That’s the real story here.
When initially announcing the contempt charges against Bannon, Attorney General Merrick Garland noted that he’d “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,” adding that the charges “reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”
