Jake Tapper Confronts Bannon Attorney About Why His Client Ignored Jan. 6 Subpoena, Is Told, ‘Because He’s Steve Bannon’

The attorney for Steve Bannon joined CNN’s Jake Tapper for an interview just hours after his client was sentenced to four months in prison on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Bannon was convicted in July and will remain free pending appeal. His lawyer David Schoen discussed the case with Tapper on Friday night. The former adviser to Donald Trump was subpoenaed last year by the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the 2021 Capitol insurrection. He refused to comply despite having the option of appearing before the committee and invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Bannon participated in strategy sessions in a “war room” at the Willard Hotel in the days before the Capitol riot.

“So, this is about his contempt of Congress charge because the committee investigating January 6 wanted him to come and testify,” Tapper said to Schoen. “And I think there are a lot of us who wonder, why didn’t he just go before the committee and do what so many other potentially prosecutable suspects in this investigation have done… and just assert the Fifth Amendment for any answers that might incriminate him? I don’t understand why he didn’t just do that.”

Schoen gave a straightforward response.

“Because he’s Steve Bannon,” he answered. “He doesn’t like the optic of taking the Fifth Amendment. I have said before that I tend to think I would advise any client appearing before this committee to take the Fifth, quite frankly, because I have real problems with the political composition of the committee.”

Schoen went on to note that Jan. 6 committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) had sued Trump for personal injuries he allegedly sustained during the insurrection. Because of that, Schoen called the decision to appoint Thompson chair of the committee “inappropriate.”

Thompson has since withdrawn the suit.

Watch above via CNN.

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