Two years ago this month, a jury in the nation’s capital ruled Steve Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress. Over the next 24 months, the right-wing operative/podcaster explored every legal avenue possible in the hopes of avoiding incarceration.
But when the Supreme Court rejected his bid at the last minute late last week, Bannon was left with no options. The Associated Press reported last night:
It was back in September 2021 when the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack first sent Bannon a subpoena. Even then, the severity was clear: the podcaster was told that this was a legal subpoena, not a suggestion, and that failure to comply with the subpoena opened the door to meaningful legal consequences.
Bannon nevertheless refused to cooperate. The House then passed a resolution censuring the GOP operative for contempt of Congress and referred the case to the Justice Department, which charged the former White House strategist. Later, a jury convicted Bannon — his lawyers struggled to present a defense — ultimately leading to his prison sentence, which was imposed by a Trump-appointed judge.
Republicans in Congress launched an effort to save him from legal liability, but it proved futile.
Against this backdrop, a recent memorable quote comes to mind. “With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals,” presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told USA Today in May. “With TrumpYou have a team of criminals.”
In fact, now seems like a good time to update the big list.
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Donald Trump has been charged and convicted and is awaiting sentencing.
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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has been charged, convicted and reports to prison today. (He also faces an upcoming trial on bank fraud and money laundering charges.)
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Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, was indicted, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Trump’s former adviser and campaign worker, Roger Stone, was indicted, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Trump’s former adviser and former White House aide, Peter Navarro, was indicted, convicted and is currently in prison.
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Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was charged, convicted and sentenced to prison.
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Trump’s former White House national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.
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Although he was later acquitted at trial, former Trump inaugural committee chairman Tom Barrack was accused of illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of a foreign government. (Elliot Broidy was the vice chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee, and he found himself at the center of multiple controversies, as well as pleading guilty to federal charges related to illegal lobbying.)
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Two lawyers involved in Trump’s post-defeat efforts, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have pleaded guilty to election-related crimes.
And did I mention that the former president’s company itself was found guilty of tax fraud? Because that’s what it was.
This does not include the fact that a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse in a civil case. It also doesn’t include the fake voters charged in jurisdictions across the country, or the Republican National Committee’s “election integrity” lawyer, who was recently indicted for election-related crimes.
Sure, some of the aforementioned men were eventually pardoned by Trump, who handed out pardons as if they were party favors before leaving the Oval Office, but this doesn’t change the scope of the broader picture.
The number of people in the Republican circle who have been convicted of crimes in recent years is so large that The Washington Post once described it as the “remarkable universe of criminality” surrounding the former president.
That was five years ago. It’s even more remarkable now.
This post is an update of our related previous reporting.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
