DOJ officials unfazed by calls to expedite Bannon contempt decision
While Justice officials say they expected criticism over the delay in making a decision on the Bannon criminal referral, Garland has established a methodical approach to making decisions, aware that the department will be criticized no matter which way it goes.
Justice Department officials tell CNN that prosecutors don’t feel pressure to act more quickly. Given that criminal referrals are rare and even more rarely enforced by the department, the Bannon decision will be dissected for years to come so the lawyers have to be sure they get it right, officials say.
The referral also came amid a transition at the Washington, DC, US Attorney’s Office, which is handling the matter. The Senate approved the new US attorney, Matthew Graves, on October 28 and he took office Friday.
At Justice, the two weeks it has taken to review the referral isn’t seen as consequential, officials say.
Still, members of the House select committee that’s investigating the Capitol riot believe a quick indictment of Bannon is needed — not only to send a message to other potential witnesses but also to reaffirm the power of the congressional subpoena.
This recalls the Trump era, when numerous administration officials defied congressional subpoenas.
“They have obviously got their process. They’ve got to run their traps on all of the guidelines for deciding on a criminal prosecution in a case like that,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who’s a member of the select committee, told CNN last week when asked if he believes the Justice Department is dragging its feet on Bannon.
“We think it’s an open-and-shut case,” he added.
But there is also concern that any delay undercuts the pressure that the House select committee can bring on reluctant Trump allies to testify.
But with the Bannon decision in limbo, much of the committee’s work hangs in the balance, most notably its ability to compel cooperation from Trump allies who so far have remained elusive.
“We’re moving forward as quickly as we can as a committee. We can’t speak for … the Department of Justice,” Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, a committee member, told CNN this week.
The committee remains largely in the dark as to why the Justice Department is not doing the same.
Schiff told CNN last month, before the panel officially moved forward with its criminal contempt referral of Bannon, that he believed the Justice Department under President Joe Biden would be more favorable to contempt referrals than it was when Democratic-controlled House committees had tried to take similar actions during the Trump presidency, when Republicans controlled the department.
That expectation, however, runs counter to Garland’s mission to restore normalcy at the Justice Department after four years of the Trump administration openly pressuring the department on matters close to the then-President.
Some Democrats, while trying to show support for Garland’s efforts to divorce the Justice Department from politics, are nonetheless nudging him about their expectations.
“It is not enough just to right the ship,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who’s the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the attorney general at a hearing recently. “As the chief law enforcement officer of our nation, it is also your responsibility to help the country understand and reckon with the violence and the lawlessness of the last administration.”
CNN’s Annie Grayer and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.
