Reminder: Jack Smith Could Also Indict Trump for Trying to Overturn the Election

By Bess Levin

When it comes to the legal affairs of one Donald Trump, the most pressing issues, at the moment, are (1) the 34 class E felonies he was charged with in April in New York and (2) a potential federal indictment over his handling of classified documents, which appears more and more likely by the day. But, of course, those cases do not represent the entirety of the legal peril the former guy is in and, in fact, they don't even represent all of the legal peril he is in when it comes to special counsel Jack Smith. As a reminder, the war crimes prosecutor is not just investigating Trump re: classified documents, but the ex-president's attempt to overturn the 2020 election. And the latter is apparently in the "make people close to Trump testify" phase.

NBC News reports that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed former White House adviser Steve Bannon in connection with Smith's investigation into Trump's attempt to "stay in office" despite losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. (In addition to summoning Bannon for testimony, the subpoena also reportedly orders him to hand over documents.) Last year, Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison (and a fine of $6,500) for defying a subpoena from the House panel investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, with a judge saying he had not "taken responsibility for his actions" and that "others must be deterred from committing similar crimes." (Bannon's sentence was suspended while he pursues appeals.)

As for why Smith (and the House panel before him) would want to hear from Bannon, that likely has to do with the former White House official being one of many Trump allies who spread lies about the 2020 election being stolen, and saying on his podcast the day before the attack on the US Capitol that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow." And as CNN notes, "Bannon also urged Trump in December 2020 to focus his attention on January 6, the date of the Electoral College certification vote in Congress, according to the book Peril, by authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The authors also reported that Trump called Bannon after a contentious January 5 meeting with then vice president Mike Pence, where Pence told Trump he did not have the authority to block the certification of the 2020 election results."

Bannon's attorney declined NBC News’ request for comment.

Incidentally, like Trump, Bannon has numerous legal issues on his plate. In addition to the prison sentence for his actions concerning the January 6 panel that he's appealing, he was charged last year in New York—and pleaded not guilty—with money laundering, conspiracy, and scheming to defraud, for allegedly scamming people to fork over a collective $25 million-plus of their own money as part of a crowd-funding initiative to finish building the southern border wall Trump famously claimed Mexico was going to pay for. (In August 2020, Bannon was charged at the federal level for the same scheme, but Trump pardoned him in one of his last acts as president.)

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