Government

Turns Out That Pardon Wasn't The Get Out Of Jail Card Bannon Was Banking On

Just when he thought he was out, they pull him back in.

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(Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Pour one out for Old Three Shirts. Fresh off reports from CNN that New York state prosecutors are also investigating Stephen Bannon for his role in a scam to crowdfund a border wall, the feds have told U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres that they’re not ready to let the defendant go just yet irrespective of his presidential pardon.

In a letter to the court yesterday, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York argued that Bannon’s 11th hour reprieve may eliminate the punishment, but doesn’t magic away the indictment or the evidence against him. Particularly since he didn’t bother to secure a pardon for his alleged co-conspirators and may be called to testify in the case against them.

“The fact that Bannon was pardoned does not extinguish the fact that a grand jury found probable cause to believe that he committed the offenses set forth in the Indictment, nor does it undercut the evidence of his involvement therein which the Government expects to elicit as part of its presentation at trial,” the government writes. “Were the Court to dismiss the Indictment against Bannon, it could have a broader effect than the pardon itself, among other things potentially relieving Bannon of certain consequences not covered by the pardon.”

The U.S. Attorney is also demanding that Bannon’s lawyers docket the ex parte letter they sent to Judge Torres last week asking that their client be removed from the case.

“Bannon’s counsel submitted the letter to the Court by email—and therefore effectively under seal—because, in his view, ‘Bannon should no longer be a defendant in the case.'” they wrote. “However, until the defendant is administratively terminated, he remains a named defendant and more important, Bannon’s status in the case is not a basis to make his submission under seal.”

What are the odds that any of this would be happening if Bill Barr had succeeded in Saturday Night Massacring Jay Clayton into the top job at SDNY? (That’s a joke, the answer is ZERO.)

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So, to summarize: Steve Bannon faces no jeopardy in federal court, but will still have to pay to defend himself there; Cy Vance is pawing through his financial records as we speak; and Bannon might well escape Otisville only to wind up in Rikers.

Well played, good sir!

SDNY Letter [via Law & Crime]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.;

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