Steve Bannon on Wednesday failed to appear in court for his arraignment after formally pleading not guilty to two counts of criminal contempt for defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
As noted by Raw Story, “Bannon’s attorney filed a notice in advance of a hearing set for Thursday morning, saying the former Trump advisor doesn’t need to have his charges read by a judge in open court, meaning he can skip a formal arraignment.”
The move was the subject of an MSNBC panel discussion, where NYU law professor Melissa Murray pointed out that “it’s uncommon for a defendant to waive arraignment,” Raw Story reported.
“Typically the person who’s been charged will hear the charges against them in open court,” the law expert said. “The fact that he chose not to do so in this case, and that his lawyer weighed in by email to say that it was merely to make this more efficient, suggests that perhaps he doesn’t quite take this as seriously as everyone else seems to be taking it. So it is an unorthodox step, one that most defendants do not take, but again, there has been nothing that has been by the book about all of this to begin with.”
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Washington Post reporter Robert Costa followed up by suggesting that Bannon is playing a “waiting game” to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court takes up Trump’s case and grants him executive privilege.
“They’re going to hope that Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh and other conservatives on the court rule in favor of protecting a former president’s privilege, even when he’s talking to someone like Steve Bannon who’s been out of the White House for years,” Costa said.
Watch the segment below from MSNBC, via YouTube.
