Jack Smith just dragged Steve Bannon into the Trump indictment fray
For awhile now I’ve been stressing that most of the “new” events being reported in Jack Smith’s Trump probe were actually old events that happened months ago, and are simply coming out now. This has particularly been the case when it comes to recent reporting about Smith’s subpoenas, with the fine print of the reporting revealing that such subpoenas were issued months ago. But now something different has happened.
NBC News is reporting today that Jack Smith issued a subpoena to Steve Bannon in the January 6th probe in “late May.” That’s just about two weeks ago. So this is new news. This is a subpoena that was just recently issued. That’s remarkable, given just how far down the road Smith’s 1/6 probe is. After all, Mike Pence and Mark Meadows have already testified in the 1/6 probe.
It’s not as if Jack Smith forgot Steve Bannon existed and forgot to subpoena him earlier in the probe, and is just now getting around to it. No, this is something different. Two weeks ago Jack Smith must have uncovered something new that led him to send out this subpoena, some new lead he’s chasing down. Given that Bannon is being subpoenaed for testimony, and you can’t be subpoenaed to testify against yourself, this isn’t about Bannon, it’s about something else.
We’ll find out eventually what this Bannon subpoena is about, and who’s on the wrong end of the Bannon testimony that Smith is now seeking. But the upshot is that, even with Jack Smith’s first indictment of Donald Trump coming potentially as soon as tomorrow, Smith’s overall Trump probe is still very much ongoing. Trump, and people around him, can expect even more indictments after the initial Trump indictment.
