Adam Kinzinger on Steve Bannon conviction: Ignoring subpoenas means ‘you’ll pay the price’

Rep. Adam Kinzinger on Sunday applauded the conviction of former Trump aide Steve Bannon for ignoring a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, a panel of which the Illinois Republican is a member.

Bannon was found guilty Friday of criminal contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House panel, marking a significant victory in its probe of last year’s riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s good. I mean justice, right? You can plead the Fifth if you want in front of our committee, but you can’t ignore a congressional subpoena, or you’ll pay the price,” Mr. Kinzinger told ABC’s “This Week.”

“That’s to any future witnesses, too,” he added.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, painted a bleak outcome for Bannon’s plan to appeal the conviction.

“I think he got badly ill-advised upfront. He should have gone to the hearing and invoked the executive privilege and/or the Fifth Amendment. And then he wouldn’t be subject to any of this,” he said on the show.

Mr. Christie attributed the poor choices to Bannon’s public persona.

“This is Steve Bannon being Steve Bannon,” he said. “He’s got to make a living somehow. He certainly isn’t as a fashion model. He’s going to make it somehow, and he’s making it by inciting people this way.”

Bannon’s remarks leading up to the Capitol riot on his “War Room” podcast have been a subject of the committee’s extensive investigation.

The day before the pro-Trump riot, Bannon vowed to his supporters that “all hell” would break loose the following day.

The jury in federal court in Washington returned the guilty verdict against Bannon on two counts after just under 3 hours of deliberations on Friday.

Federal prosecutors argued that the former Trump adviser “chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance to the law.”

Bannon faces a minimum of 30 days in prison, with a possible maximum sentence of two years, for the misdemeanor charge.

The former Trump adviser struck a more docile tone outside of the courthouse Friday after the verdict, thanking the jury and conceding defeat while vowing to appeal the verdict.

“We respect their decision,” he said. “We may have lost a battle here today, but we’re not going to lose the war.”

He did not testify in his own defense.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.

The verdict capped off months of back and forth between Bannon and the Jan. 6 committee, which has, at times, faced defiance to subpoenas from key witnesses. That includes former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, whom the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute for contempt despite a criminal referral from Congress.

Mr. Meadows has turned over thousands of text messages and other information from the time of the attack but has not complied with the committee’s subpoena to testify.  

“I don’t think that they can revisit something that they’ve already dismissed. But he’s certainly someone who has probably more information than anyone, other than the folks we’ve already heard from who were in the White House that day,” Rep. Elaine Luria, Virginia Democrat and Jan. 6 committee member, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

“That information would be incredibly helpful,” she said.