Steve Bannon and the “Opposite” Media Coalition Summary, Bizarre

Steve Bannon, the first advisor for Donald Trump, long time ago likes to attack the press. He famously remarked: “The media here is the opposition party. Still, Washington can make some strange enemies even in these divided times, and the interests of the far-right MAGA provocateur and the media he loves to attack are converging. Forming an alliance is not easy, almost certainly short-lived.

Since his indictment Last month, out of contempt for Congress, Bannon fought to make public documents related to his allegations stemming from the House’s investigation into the January 6 uprising on Capitol Hill. Prosecutors wanted a “order of protection” over the documents, arguing in a court filing on Sunday that Bannon would use evidence from the discovery process to hear the case in the media. communication – an understandable concern, given the defendant’s public comment about continuing to “commit a crime” against the Department of Justice and his political enemies. Washington Post on Wednesday report which it has joined with other stores — including New York Times and CNN, villains to MAGA rights — in filing a petition on Bannon’s side. The order prosecutors are seeking, arguing that the union of news organizations, would make it “impossible” for journalists to view the documents themselves to cover them, a potential violation of the Amendment. first judgment.

Such a protective order is “excessive,” the union said in a legal filing. It would “limit what the public can learn about the government’s case,” Post reported, and defied Bannon’s First Amendment rights by prohibiting him from “communicating with the news media” about the incident.

It is easy to sympathize with the concerns of the DOJ. Bannon, who is knowledgeable about the media as well as critical of it, was threatened after facing two contempt charges in court that “they misjudged the wrong person”, criticized the media frenzy when he claimed he was the victim of a political. elect. “This will be a misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, Nancy Pelosi, and Joe Biden, “Bannon” told a gaggle press in November, accusing the president of ordering a witch hunt against him. Prosecutors cited those remarks in their late filing on Sunday, warning that making the “sensitive” document public would have the “collateral effect of witness tampering.”

“It will expose witnesses to public comment on their potential testimony before trial and allow a witness to review a summary of the testimony of other witnesses recounting the same,” the prosecutors wrote. an event or events,” the prosecutors wrote. “The defendant’s threat to ‘keep committing the crime’ and turn this case into ‘hell’ cannot be ignored considering these witnesses’ privacy rights in their personal background information. “

But concerns about civil liberties complicate matters further. In their summary, the first is report equal Daily mail, media organizations argued that the DOJ’s obligation to demonstrate that “less restrictive alternatives” would not be enough to prevent Bannon from undermining the proceedings. Of course, that doesn’t mean these stores necessarily work to advance Bannon’s interests. But their concerns on the question were aligned.