New January 6 subpoenas increase pressure on Garland to set an example with Bannon

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(CNN) - The House select committee probing the January 6 insurrection placed its credibility and legal clout deeper into the hands of Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday with a new flurry of subpoenas targeting cronies of ex-President Donald Trump.

For the committee to retain hopes of compelling testimony from the group, it may need the Justice Department to initiate a prosecution against another Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, who has already defied a subpoena. The former President's populist alter ego earned a rare contempt of Congress citation for his intransigence. But two-and-half weeks on, the department has yet to say whether it will act on that gambit and indict Bannon through the Washington, DC, US Attorney's office. Without such a move, the committee's enforcement capacity looks in serious doubt as it races to conclude before Democrats are at risk of losing the House of Representatives in next year's midterm elections.

There are no current and public signs that Garland is feeling pressure to act quickly. In fact, a deliberative process would comply with his effort to shield the department from politicization after Trump weaponized it to protect himself during a scandal-plagued presidency and in his effort to steal the 2020 election. But that also means the new batch of six Trump confidants, who have been subpoenaed for their alleged role in amplifying Trump's lie about election fraud or abetting his coup attempt earlier this year, have reason to replicate the obstruction, at least for now. And even if Bannon is prosecuted, a long process of court cases and appeals could bog down the committee in a legal nightmare.

Such a scenario would not only allow Trump aides to outwit the committee's efforts to find the truth about the most flagrant assault on a US election in modern history. It could gut the power of Congress in the future and limit its constitutional role of serving as a check and balance on the executive branch. And it would also mean that Trump, who incited a mob to march on Congress and disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden's election win, would escape a reckoning yet again, even as he and his party paper over his autocratic tendencies ahead of a likely bid for the 2024 GOP nomination. The refusal of Trump's orbit to submit to scrutiny is nothing new; it was a feature of both his impeachments, including over the insurrection earlier this year.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/09/politics/january-6-subpoenas-donald-trump-steve-bannon-merrick-garland/index.html