Last Updated on July 25, 2022
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson expressed outrage after Steve Bannon, a former Trump strategist and current political commentator, was convicted for contempt of Congress on Friday.
The January 6th Committee issued a subpoena which Bannon refused to comply with, saying he would only comply if he was assured he would receive executive privilege, which has always been granted to Democrats.
Bannon, a hardcore Trump supporter, could serve up to two years in prison over the charges. His sentencing hearing will be on October 21, 2022.
Carlson criticized the judge’s decision to charge Bannon, since, he believes Democrats have never received charges when they committed similar actions.
The Fox News host cited the story of Eric Holder, the US Attorney General during Barack Obama’s presidency. Holder was found to be in contempt of Congress for “gun-walking” in 2012.
Holder refused to cooperate with congressional inquiries as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were being investigated over the reckless law enforcement operation called “Fast and Furious”.
The “gun-walking” scheme pushed US agents to “lose” hundreds of illegal firearms sold in Arizona, allowing them to be brought into Mexico, hoping to target illegal gun dealers.
After some of the illegal weapons were found to have been sued to brutally murder a US border agent, Holder still refused to cooperate with the investigation and was eventually completely cleared of any disciplinary action. Also, the Obama White House protected itself completely by asserting executive privilege.
“Holder claimed executive privilege, which was enough, even after a judge ruled that executive privilege did not apply in Eric Holder’s case, but it didn’t matter. He walked,” Carlson explained.
When Holder was first held in contempt, he accused Republicans of partaking in “election-year politics and gamesmanship”, calling the charges “unnecessary and unwarranted.”
Holder affirmed he worked to end the Fast and Furious operation after he heard about the “gun-walking” plans but Republicans were pushing “truly absurd, truly absurd conspiracy theories” to push a different narrative.
RELATED: Top Lawyer Robert Barnes Exposes Politically Motivated Sham Indictment of Steve Bannon
House Democrats in the election cycle parroted Holder’s views, with Rep. John Dingel (D-MI) calling the investigation into Holder a “partisan political witch-hunt with the attorney general as its target.”
Unlike Holder’s case, Steve Bannon and all of Trump’s executive office has not been granted executive privilege by the Jan. 6th committee.
Another Democrat that was held in contempt of congress but eventually freed without any repercussions was Lois Lerner.
Lerner was held in contempt in 2013 after she refused to cooperate with an investigation into the IRS for explicitly targeting Conservative groups with audits. Lerner headed the IRS division that covered applications for tax-exempt groups but refused to help the investigation and retired.
Both Lerner and Holder never faced a trial. Lerner avoided trial by doing something similar to Bannon’s refusal of his subpoena. She cited the fifth amendment while being investigating by the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, repeatedly declining to answer questions and requests to overturn IRS documents.
Tucker Carlson noted how Bannon stopped working in the Trump administration three years before January 6th, but he “annoyed the wrong people, so he’s going to jail.”
“Steve Bannon was subpoenaed by the January 6 committee despite the fact he had literally nothing to do with January 6. We know that because he left the White House three years before it happened, but it didn’t matter. He annoyed the wrong people, so he’s going to jail.”
WATCH:
Stay tuned to National File for any updates.
RELATED: Top Lawyer Robert Barnes Exposes Politically Motivated Sham Indictment of Steve Bannon
