WASHINGTON—The Justice Department told a federal judge that Steve Bannon’s last-minute offer to testify before a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is no reason for then-President Donald Trump’s former strategist to avoid trial for disobeying the commission’s subpoena for depositions and documents.
Mr. Bannon told the committee over the weekend that he was willing to testify, preferably in a public hearing. His trial is scheduled to begin July 18 on two counts of criminal contempt.
Mr. Bannon initially refused to comply with the committee’s Jan. 6 subpoena in October.
“The defendant’s last-minute efforts to testify, nearly nine months after his default — he has yet to make an effort to produce records — are irrelevant to whether he willfully refused to comply with the October 2021 subpoena. prosecutors said in a filing Monday.
The government’s request is to prevent Mr. Bannon’s defense team from telling jurors about his last-minute willingness to testify.
Mr. Bannon said he was now ready to testify after Mr. Trump said he would drop any claims of privilege, citing what the former president called unfair treatment of Mr. Bannon.
Prosecutors said Mr. Trump “never invoked executive privilege over any specific information or materials” and that Mr. Bannon’s claim of privilege never justified a complete failure to comply with the subpoena.
The plea from prosecutors came before a previously scheduled court hearing on Monday to discuss Mr. Bannon’s request to delay the trial until October and other matters in the case. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, is overseeing the case in Washington.
Mr. Bannon’s lawyers argued that news coverage of the committee’s hearings could taint the jury and deprive him of a fair trial.
“Members of the Select Committee made inflammatory remarks about the culpability of President Trump and his closest advisers, including Mr. Bannon, and broadcast to millions of people their alleged ‘findings’ on matters that could prejudice the minds of jurors in this case,” Mr. Bannon’s lawyers wrote in a June 29 court filing.
Judge Nichols on Monday declined to postpone the trial date, saying he believed the jury selection process would result in a fair jury. The judge also ruled on several issues about what both sides could present at trial.
In a setback for Mr. Bannon, Judge Nichols said that prosecutors only had to prove that Mr. Bannon willfully evaded the subpoena, not that he had a nefarious motive for doing so. The judge said Mr. Bannon could not present evidence that he relied on advice from lawyers or claims of executive privilege, saying those justifications were not relevant to the central question of whether he was aware of the subpoena.
Mr. Bannon could argue that there was some misunderstanding, for example, if he was not aware of the deadline for the subpoena, the judge said.
In a small victory for Mr. Bannon’s legal team, Judge Nichols said Mr. Bannon’s lawyers could question witnesses about potential political bias, but said the questions could not be too intrusive.
— Jan Wolff contributed to this article.
The Wall Street Journal analyzed hours of video and audio from the Capitol riot to better understand how a crowd of thousands overran police and attacked the US Capitol. Photo illustration: Laura Kamerman
Fallout From the Capitol Riot
Email Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com
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