The brilliant legal minds on Steve Bannon’s defense team, given effectively jack shit to work with in their closing argument Friday, raised the issue of whether or not House January 6th Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson really signed the subpoena for Bannon, Politico’s Kyle Cheney reports, saying the lawyers noticed the signature is a little sloppy compared to other examples of Thompson’s mark and thus may not be “legit.” Which is a valid question to ask when you forget that Bennie Thompson is a grown man who has served in Congress for almost 30 years and is the leader of the highest profile Congressional investigation in decades and probably doesn’t want to risk prosecution for himself or any staff members for forging a legal instrument.
The judge told Bannon’s team to cut the bullshit. They then brought up that the assistant DC federal prosecutor Molly Gaston is in a book club with one of the prosecution’s witnesses, a House January 6th Select Committee deputy staff director and general counsel Kristin Amerling. “Make no mistake, I’m not against book clubs,” said Bannon defense lawyer Evan Corcoran. The judge sustained no less than four prosecution objections during the defense’s closing arguments.
UPDATE 7/22/2022 11:39 AM EDT: Jurors begin deliberating, per Kyle Cheney.