The Steve Bannon testimony debate is completely missing the point
The point is not to force Steve Bannon to testify. He’s under criminal investigation in New York, so even if he did testify he’d just plead the fifth. The point is to mess up Bannon’s life as a punishment for not testifying, so other more useful witnesses are then scared into testifying.
And to be clear, a federal criminal referral will destroy what little is left of Bannon’s life. At that point he’ll be trying to fend off separate federal and state criminal probes at the same time, which always becomes impossible. Bannon will end up rotting in prison for certain.
And while pundits on TV and Twitter paint Bannon as having magically gotten away with it all, back in the real world other 1/6 witnesses will fall in line as a direct result of the DOJ criminal referral against Bannon. They understand that’s a life ruiner. In fact we’re already seeing this with witnesses like Mark Meadows.
So as usual we’ll have a fictional doomsday version of things playing out on TV and Twitter, even as the real world proceedings (and everyone involved in them) take an entirely different journey with a different outcome.
Here’s the kicker: the DOJ already indicted and arrested Bannon once, only to be foiled by a Trump pardon. Of course they’ll bust Bannon again. They’re itching for it. You’d have to be completely removed from reality to think they won’t bust Bannon again.
But because Bannon won’t be arrested by the 59 minute mark of this fictional Law & Order episode that the pundits are living in, they’ll falsely declare he’s “gotten away with it all.” Fortunately, those of you reading this are far smarter than that, and you understand that this is about roughing up Bannon in order to scare the next guy.
