OPINION:
The U.S. political prisoner population grew by one last week. Steve Bannon has been ordered to report to prison by July 1, locking Mr. Bannon behind bars for the duration of the election cycle — precisely the goal of U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols said he had no choice but to sentence Mr. Bannon, former adviser to then-President Donald Trump, after the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals refused to accept Mr. Trump’s assertion of executive privilege.
Mr. Bannon had declined to testify before the Jan. 6 congressional committee while challenging the panel’s legitimacy. The committee was not regularly constituted, composed as it was of seven Democrats and two renegade GOP members who swiftly lost their seats in Congress.
Imprisoning anyone for this misdemeanor is out of character for a U.S. attorney whose serial refusal to prosecute actual crimes has inspired an unprecedented carjacking and shoplifting rampage in the District. Yet Mr. Graves threw the book at the Republican operative, demanding a six-month sentence because Mr. Bannon said mean things about the sham congressional panel.
“Throughout this prosecution,” Mr. Graves argued, “the Defendant has leveraged his media platform to mock members of the Committee through offensive name calling, deride the Committee’s investigation through rhetoric that risks inspiring violence, and ridicule the criminal justice system through hyperbole.”
Thus, Mr. Graves admits he wants to silence Mr. Bannon, an effective voice for the GOP, who joins political prisoners like Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser under Mr. Trump, as well as Douglass Mackey, who awaits sentencing after his conviction for posting a meme unflattering to Hillary Clinton.
Democrats including Mrs. Clinton, Eric Holder, Lois Lerner and Mark Pomerantz have all defied legislative branch subpoenas, but none of them has ever been handcuffed or had their homes raided.
When Sandy Berger, former President Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser, walked into the National Archives in 2003, shoved original, classified documents into his socks and then walked out so he could destroy the embarrassing papers — true larceny, far more serious than anything Mr. Bannon did — he got off with a fine and community service.
The House Rules Committee on Tuesday will consider recommending Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt for defying a congressional committee’s demand for the audiotape of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. Mr. Garland makes an implausible argument that it would be dangerous to release the recording of a conversation that has supposedly been accurately transcribed.
The GOP-led House must not allow the partisan double standard to continue. Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, says House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, should withdraw the subpoena issued to Mr. Bannon and declare the proceedings of the Jan. 6 committee null and void through a House resolution.
Surely the speaker will wonder whether the Republican conference would stick together on such a vote. Unlike Democrats, the GOP is rarely united on contentious issues. But this partisan abuse must end now.
It’s up to the public to contact their representative to convey the importance of taking action to restore an impartial system of justice. That restoration ought to begin with ensuring Mr. Garland lives by the same rules he’s using against his political opponents.
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