Bullshit artists always bullshit

Remember Steve Bannon getting a letter from Trump waiving any privilege and permitting Bannon to testify?

After stonewalling the committee for eight months, Bannon reversed course on Saturday, suggesting Trump had “waived” claims of executive privilege and permitted him to testify. Trump signed a letter supporting Bannon’s reversal and claimed to “waive” executive privilege over Bannon’s testimony.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Vaughn said that Clark had confirmed in his June 29 interview what DOJ long suspected: that Trump had never invoked executive privilege to block Bannon from testifying.

  Politico

So what's with this bullshit letter and Bannon's sudden willingness to testify? Was it just that they were hoping the Committee would be stupid enough to put him on TV?

“The Defendant’s timing suggests that the only thing that has really changed since he refused to comply with the subpoena in October 2021 is that he is finally about to face the consequences of his decision to default,” Vaughn wrote.

“All of the above-described circumstances suggest the Defendant’s sudden wish to testify is not a genuine effort to meet his obligations but a last-ditch attempt to avoid accountability.”Clark told DOJ “that the former President never invoked executive privilege over any particular information or materials; that the former President’s counsel never asked or was asked to attend the Defendant’s deposition before the Select Committee; that the Defendant’s attorney misrepresented to the Committee what the former President’s counsel had told the Defendant’s attorney; and that the former President’s counsel made clear to the Defendant’s attorney that the letter provided no basis for total noncompliance.”

[...]

The Jan. 6 select committee recently revealed that Clark interviewed with them as well, raising doubts about the Trump camp’s effort to send false slates of electors to Congress in December 2020, part of a multifaceted plan to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election.

Bannon’s attorneys indicated they were aware of Clark’s interview last week, citing it — without identifying Clark — as a reason to delay Bannon’s trial until October.

In a separate filing, DOJ also rejected additional arguments by Bannon to delay his trial, including a newly lodged argument that one of the prosecutors on the case, Molly Gaston, once worked with a top select committee staffer, Kristin Amerling, on Capitol Hill and were in a book club together.

[...]

“As the Government informed the Defendant on July 8, she and Ms. Gaston worked together over a decade ago and were in a book club that Ms. Gaston has not attended in almost two years. At no point did the Government represent that Ms. Amerling and Ms. Gaston have a close personal relationship, because they do not" [Vaughn wrote.]

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.