Bannon Can Be Held In Jail Sooner Than Most Realize
Most legal analysis in the media on whether Steve Bannon will be able to run out the clock and avoid jail time for thumbing his nose at Congress has not mentioned something important.
The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland do not necessarily need to request that Mr. Bannon be held, for that to happen.
Federal release and detention are governed by 18 U.S.C. §§ 3141-3156 of the Bail Reform Act.
According to Sec.3142(f)(2)(b), upon the motion of the government attorney or on the court’s (i.e., a judge’s) own motion, the court can detain Bannon BEFORE trial if a “serious risk” exists that the defendant “will obstruct justice or threaten a witness”.
Upon arraignment, federal judges have to determine not only the potential for bail but also the potential for holding a defendant pending trial.
Who can seriously argue that there is not a “serious risk” Bannon will obstruct justice based upon his previous conduct, his recent conduct with the January 6th congressional committee, and his public statements?
The text of the law is clear: regardless of what the DOJ asks for in terms of pretrial detention, the federal judge can order him held in jail while awaiting trial.
Whether or not such a detention occurs, it is important to understand that the possibility that Bannon will be taken into custody upon arraignment not only exists, it may even be likely.
Lock ‘im up!
The important (and again, completely uncommented upon) point here, is that the Justice Department and AG Merrick Garland need not request that Mr. Bannon be held.
The statute says that regardless of what the DOJ asks for in terms of pretrial detention, the federal judge can order him held in jail while awaiting trial.
Big deal.
” Power doesn’t corrupt as much as it reveals.” Robert Caro
Even better is for Congress to use the inherent power of contempt it already possesses.
Inherent contempt is not subject to the discretion of any Attorney General or any judge.
I agree that Bannon can be locked up. In fact the government is locking up people on much flimsier grounds all the time.
The question is will they lock him up. And if they don’t, or this gets dragged out forever, what would that say about the people who have that power and don’t use it?
Sadly, I agree.
The Democrats show little courage or appetite for anything except air time.
I was, frankly, disgusted to see Adam Schiff on the Colbert show last night. So much so that I turned it off before his appearance.
The Democrats are spending too much time in front of cameras and microphones and too little time attending to urgent matters of substance.
It’s particularly troublesome because the Democrats — without exception — use their over-abundance of airtime to repeat the same tired and now irrelevant message over and over.
We already know all the awful things that GOP did. We all saw it unfold live as it happened. We all witnessed the complete absence of any sort of security presence at the Capitol (besides the handful of sacrificial lambs offered up by the Capitol Police). We’ve heard all the lies of Mr. McConnell and Mr. McCarthy. We’ve heard all all the lies of Mr. Bannon and the other criminal co-conpsirators.
What we have NOT heard or seen is ANY of these criminals being handcuffed and perp-walked to a waiting cell. We have NOT heard any reports of DoJ investigations into any of this.
It appears to me that we are on a path to do absolutely NOTHING about any of this, just as we did not nothing about the war crimes of the George W. Bush administration.
The result of this inaction is that the GOP coup will succeed. These criminals will take over in 2022 or 2024 (it doesn’t really matter). When they do, the will pardon and release any of their ilk who has managed to get convicted in spite of the best efforts of the Democrats to do nothing.
Their next step will be to prosecute, convict, and jail every elected Democrat who opposed them or who criticize them as they do it. Their plants on the Supreme Court will find excuses to do nothing.
We are in the middle of a full-blown insurrection, and the Democrats behave as if it’s just another routine city council meeting.
I very much disagree with your assessment of Schiff on Colbert. I don’t think he was skipping a hearing to appear on TV. You refer to getting things out on the public record and these days this is the way to do it. I suspect Colbert’s audience is much different from C-SPAN’s.
I get that Colbert has higher ratings than C-SPAN (I can’t even get C-SPAN). Of course he wasn’t skipping a hearing to get on C-SPAN.
I want to know what, if any, process Mr. Schiff is pursuing to ensure that necessary indictments are brought against the co-conspirators in this insurrection. If his staff is meeting with their counterparts in the DoJ, then I’d like to see reporting of that.
Please help me understand how Mr. Schiff’s appearance on Colbert does anything other than raise ratings (and perhaps contributions).
I think he’s grandstanding.
It raises awareness, and for something like this that is half the battle. Yes, we all saw what TV cameras recorded on 1/6, but that doesn’t explain how it was planned, who was involved, “What did the President know and when did he know it?”, why law enforcement was so ill-prepared. It HAS been reported that criminal referrals to the DOJ are being prepared. Do you think the Watergate hearings were a waste of time? I think a lot of record would have been lost without them.