On July 22, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol. The ruling has prompted Republicans and conservative observers to accuse the Democrats of weaponizing the law against the opposition.
"Bannon will… undoubtedly argue that he was selectively prosecuted (essentially, a denial of equal protection of the law) because the Justice Department had not indicted a contempt-of-Congress charge in nearly 40 years," former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy remarked in his op-ed for National Review.
At the same time, however, one might expect the GOP to capitalize on the precedent one day, Just the News points out, citing Tea Party Patriots Action Honorary Chair Jenny Beth Martin.
"I think that [the Democrats] should be concerned about the kind of precedent that they're setting in; imagine if a Republican controlled an oversight committee, and called see Hunter Biden to testify before Congress, and he refused, and they held him or pursued contempt of Congress charges for him," she said. "They just better be careful what they wish for."
It appears the Dems should take this threat very seriously, as the GOP has a pretty big chance of taking over the House in 2023. According to Politico, House Republicans are already planning to "bombard Joe Biden’s administration with investigations next year, from Hunter Biden to the border to the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan."
Investigations will also give the House GOP a good chance to subpoena Biden administration officials and… the president's son.
In 2020, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee conducted an investigation into Hunter Biden led at the time by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.). The upper chamber's committee released a report detailing the younger Biden's questionable financial dealings and issued a bunch of subpoenas for his associates and partners.
The GOP probe into Biden is likely to get its second wind if the Republicans gain a majority in one or both chambers of the US Congress.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, the House Republican conference chair, asserted to Fox News this week that the GOP is ready to dig into the Bidens and accused the incumbent president and his son of having "illegal ties to crime" and "relationships with other foreign adversaries, and entities that he should not be involved with."
"We've already made those document requests and we're not going to hesitate when it comes to utilizing our subpoena power," Stefanik said. "Because again, the American people deserve accountability and deserve an investigation into what I believe is the Biden crime family."
Earlier, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan and James Comer also pledged to investigate the Bidens. In late June, Rep. James Comer said on Fox Business that the Hunter Biden case would be a GOP priority for House oversight. According to the lawmaker, the Republicans "view Hunter Biden as a national security risk." He further alleged that Joe Biden "had a great deal of knowledge with respect to Hunter's business dealings."
It seems Bannon is expecting the GOP may take its sweet revenge on the Dems in 2023. If Republicans flip the House in the midterm elections, then "we have to really govern, govern on offense," Bannon said on Fox News after being convicted. "Every committee in the House has to be an oversight committee," he said.