House Subcommittee on Government Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk plans to file an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Wednesday and also introduce a resolution in the House of Representatives to invalidate the Jan. 6 select committee report into former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, The Daily Caller has first learned.
Loudermilk said House rules require the Jan. 6 select committee to hold depositions in consultation with the “lead minority member,” but that was not possible because the select committee did not have a ranking Republican. Loudermilk's office told the Caller that the Jan. 6 select committee held Bannon in contempt for “failing to attend a deposition” that the select committee was unable to hold because there was no ranking minority member to notify.
Loudermilk's office said the appointment of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming as vice chair of the committee does not satisfy a legal requirement that select committees consult with senators. Vice chairs are not senators, and Cheney was selected by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Loudermilk's office told the Caller.
The House Loudermilk Subcommittee on Government Oversight is also working on a bill that is expected to be introduced in the near future that would “undo the work of the Select Committee on January 6th,” Caller has learned for the first time.
The amicus brief came after Bannon on Friday asked the Supreme Court to stay his prison sentence. Bannon has been ordered to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
“My committee has spent the past year and a half combing through all the evidence, sifting through all the evidence, and investigating the entirety of Vice Chair Liz Cheney and Chairman Bennie Thompson's Select Committee activities on January 6th,” Loudermilk told The Caller before filing his amicus brief. “We have clearly seen that they have not been completely honest with the American people. They had little respect for the rules of the House and zero regard for transparency. They suppressed key evidence, cherry-picked evidence to support their claims, and engaged in a $20 million blame shift to ensnare President Trump and the Republican Party.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Request Communications Between Cassidy Hutchinson and Fani Willis' Offices for J6 Investigation)
Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia chairs a House Administration Committee Oversight Subcommittee hearing on “Oversight of the U.S. Capitol Police Inspector General's Office,” Wednesday, July 19, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“The two-year interrogation of Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney may have entertained the media and kept many Democratic lawyers busy, but it also had outsized real-world consequences, as seen in the imprisonment of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon. Yet the previously hidden evidence uncovered by my subcommittee makes it clear that their 'findings' were not supported by facts, evidence or sworn testimony,” he added. (Related article: Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon asks Supreme Court to postpone prison sentence)
Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday, urging Johnson and House Republicans to support Bannon's legal defense before he is sent to prison. The letter states that Banks fully supports Bannon's request, urging Johnson to direct a bipartisan legal advisory group to file an amicus brief in support of his emergency petition, filed June 21, 2024, seeking continued release pending an appeal to the Supreme Court.
