No wonder the DOJ’s indictment of Steve Bannon took three weeks

There’s a popular narrative out there these days that “the DOJ is doing nothing” with regard to Trump world. This narrative is opportunistically floated by pundits who know better but want to paint themselves as being superior to the DOJ, and believed by audiences who mistakenly think this is a reality show where everything happens on camera. But back in the real world, federal criminal probes take place almost entirely behind the scenes. Even as the details do incrementally become public, it always leaves us several steps behind. The pundits who claim to know the DOJ is doing “nothing” are, in fact, just making that up.

We were reminded of this once again today, thanks to a new court filing in the Steve Bannon contempt case. These filings reveal that in the three weeks that transpired between the House’s criminal contempt referral and the DOJ’s eventual indictment and arrest of Bannon, a whole lot happened. The DOJ spent those three weeks aggressively digging into Bannon’s refusal to cooperate with the January 6th Committee from every angle, in an attempt at building the strongest and most jury-proof case possible.

In fact these new court filings reveal that the DOJ spent that time investigating Bannon’s attorney. This included having the FBI interview Bannon’s attorney twice, and then apparently obtaining Bannon’s attorney’s phone and email records. Keep in mind that attorney-client privilege generally shields these kinds of communications, unless something is going on outside the bounds of merely representing a client.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Bannon’s attorney is also under criminal investigation – he could merely be a material witness – but it does mean that something much bigger is going on here. It’s been widely pointed out that this same attorney represented Bannon back when he was indicted in 2020 for the “build the wall” scam. This in turn suggests that the DOJ may have already been in the process of investigating Bannon for other alleged crimes when the House made its contempt referral.

We’ll see. As Steve Bannon’s criminal case continues to work its way through the courts, more of the details will emerge in filings. Notably, the details that surfaced today were in a filing made by Bannon as part of his defense, meaning the DOJ is still hesitant to let anyone know what all it’s been doing behind the scenes with regard to Bannon. Given that Bannon is surely only including the specific details (perhaps out of context) that he thinks will paint him as a victim of DOJ overreach, what we’ve learned today is likely only a small fraction of the story.

Meanwhile, it’s more clear than ever that in contrast to the “DOJ is doing nothing” narratives, the DOJ is in fact doing a whole lot of something. If the DOJ worked this feverishly on its way to indicting Bannon for contempt, then it’s rather obviously working just as feverishly right now on its way to indicting Mark Meadows for contempt.

Keep in mind that these criminal referrals for contempt aren’t happening in a vacuum. They’re being made against people who are almost certainly already under DOJ criminal investigation, meaning the DOJ has to figure out how to fairly quickly bring a contempt indictment in order to satisfy the January 6th Committee’s timetable, while still keeping the larger criminal case against that person under wraps.

It’s tricky to have to defend the DOJ at a time when none of us can possibly know what it’s actually doing behind the scenes. We have no way of knowing whether or not we’ll approve of what the DOJ has been doing, once it all comes out. But as a factual matter, it’s plainly obvious that the DOJ isn’t sitting back and doing “nothing.” It isn’t lazily dragging its heels. It isn’t conspiring to protect Trump world. These are all gibberish narratives, and you can safely ignore everything you hear from the pundits who talk this way. They either have no idea how any of this works, or no interest in being honest about it.

In reality the DOJ has been aggressively pursuing Trump world all along. You may or may not agree with the timetable or the eventual results. But let’s stop pretending there’s “nothing” going on just because it’s not happening in front of the cameras. Federal criminal investigations aren’t reality shows. 98% of what goes on in such a probe takes place behind the scenes. It’s frustrating not to know what’s really going on. But when it comes to criminal probes, never mistake a lack of publicly available details with a lack of progress. Those two things never correlate.