OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Days after the Democrat-led January 6 public hearings began, a federal judge delivered a major ruling involving Steve Bannon.
Judge Carl Nichols of the DC District Court refused to throw out the charges against Bannon for contempt of Congress.
Nichols rejected Bannon’s arguments that the House select committee’s subpoenas were illegal and that he was protected by the secrecy of the presidency because he had been in contact with former President Donald Trump at the end of his administration.
“The court cannot conclude as a matter of law that the committee was improperly constituted, nor that Bannon is correct to argue that the subpoena wasn’t properly cut and the indictment is invalid,” Nichols said.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty and is headed to trial on July 18, though his attorney David Schoen said Wednesday that he may seek a delay.
“The judge, as has been the case at every juncture in this matter, came in well prepared, showed his familiarity with the issues, and entered his decision as he deemed appropriate. We have preserved all of our arguments for review and respect his decision,” Schoen said in a statement. “We look forward now to preparing for trial and to defending against this case to the fullest extent the law permits.”
Judge rejects Steve Bannon's motion to throw out contempt of Congress charges https://t.co/HPxCZ9Dgyb
— Mary Marineau 🇺🇸🇺🇦🙏 (@MaryKatherine70) June 17, 2022
Beyond that, it appears that Americans are tuning out the sham hearings.
“The second public hearing of the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol drew around 10 million total viewers Monday, less than half the audience that watched the committee’s primetime opening presentation last week,” the New York Post reported.
“Last week’s hearing aired on 12 different TV channels and drew an audience of 20 million Americans — more than watched this year’s Oscars or Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors, the latter of which aired the night before. The viewing figure came in just below that of both “NCIS” on CBS, which attracts around 11 million viewers, as well as the Tiffany Network’s “FBI” and its 10.3 million viewers. The number did however exceed the viewership of NBC’s “Chicago Fire” (around 9.9 million) and CBS’ “Blue Bloods” (roughly 9.6 million),” the report continued.
“The second public hearing of the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot drew around 10 million total viewers Monday, less than half the audience that watched the committee’s primetime opening presentation last week. Monday’s hearing audience paled in comparison to other major political events like former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, which drew about 13 million viewers. A similar number tuned in to watch former special counsel Robert Mueller testify in July 2019 about his investigation into alleged links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials,” the report added.
A poll from earlier this year found that 58 percent of voters believe the commission is biased toward Democrats
“Americans want an examination of the riots over the summer and the origins of the virus over investigating Jan. 6th,” co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, Mark Penn, said. “The voters reject the Pelosi move to toss Republicans off of the committee and see it now as just a partisan exercise.”
The poll came after Speaker Pelosi would not seat Republican Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks on the committee, further proving just how biased the entire thing is.
