‘This Whole Thing Is a Joke’: Toobin Reacts to Story About Trump Waiving Executive Privilege for Steve Bannon

CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reacted harshly to a report from the network about former President Donald Trump and his former White House adviser Steve Bannon.

The Department of Justice indicted Bannon last year for criminal contempt of Congress after to refused to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 House committee investigating the Capitol riot in 2021. Bannon has said he is protected by executive privilege despite the fact the riot happened more than three years after he left the White House. He was part of a group that met in a “war room” at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. in the days before the riot.

Citing two sources, CNN reported on Friday that Trump is considering signing a letter waiving executive privilege, ostensibly to allow Bannon to testify before the committee.

“Steve Bannon was not a White House official at that point,” Anderson Cooper noted on Friday’s AC360. “What magic executive privilege claims is he actually under? I mean, does that make any sense?”

Toobin responded that no, it makes no sense.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this whole thing is a joke,” he answered. “I mean, Steve Bannon is under criminal contempt prosecution for failing to answer subpoenas that he didn’t answer. That’s a criminal charge from the justice department. That’s done. If he wants to testify now, God bless.”

Toobin added that testifying before the committee would not absolve him as far as DOJ is concerned.

“But his criminal case is about failure to testify in the past,” he continued. “This sounds like a last-ditch effort for Bannon to sort of throw sand in the gears.”

Toobin concluded, “The whole thing seems like Steve Bannon trying to yank the committee’s chain and it’s not even up to the committee anymore. This is a charge from the justice department, and they are the ones that have to decide whether to go forward with this case. There’s a trial date, he’s going to court. I think some letter that Donald Trump may or may not write is utterly irrelevant.”

Watch above via CNN.