周四，众议院投票认定特朗普政府顾问史蒂夫·班农藐视国会，因为他无视1月6日调查国会大厦袭击事件的特别委员会发出的国会传票。

投票结果在很大程度上是按党派划分的:229票对202票，9名共和党人投票给民主党人。

选择委员会主席本尼·汤普森。，在投票前的辩论中表示，允许班农无视他们的传票将树立一个危险的先例。

他说:“对于那些选择投票反对强制执行传票的同事，你们是在对所有被叫到这个机构面前的未来男女说，他们可以无视来自国会的传票而不承担任何后果。“那次投票的后果不会仅限于这次调查和这张传票。你的投票将会给国会带来严重而持久的损害。而这反过来又会对我们所有人都深爱的国家造成严重损害。”

众议院议长南希·佩洛西在众议院投票后不久签署了该决议，并在推特上发布了一张照片。

她的办公室告诉美国广播公司新闻，该案件现已正式移交给美国哥伦比亚特区检察官办公室。司法部现在将决定是否起诉班农。

由九名成员组成的特别委员会周二晚间一致投票，向众议院全体议员提交了一份建议藐视法庭指控的报告。

共和党众议员利兹·切尼(Liz Cheney，R-Wyo)和亚当·金辛格(Adam Kinzinger，R-Ill)是该委员会的两名共和党成员，他们与所有民主党人一起投票，推动周四的辩论。众议院共和党领袖鞭策他们的成员投反对票。

但是民主党人在众议院认为立法者有宪法规定的监督责任。

“班农故意无视特别委员会的传票，表明他完全蔑视美国人民了解1月6日袭击是如何发生的权利，”金辛格说。“他自己的话强烈表明，暴民冲进国会大厦并侵入这个会议厅的行为对他来说并不奇怪。据说，他和其他几个人参与策划了当天的事件，并受到攻击国会大厦、我们的官员和我们的民主的人的鼓励。”

“我毫不怀疑，班农先生对我们传票的蔑视是真实的。但是没有人，我重复一遍，没有人可以凌驾于法律之上，”金辛格说。“我们需要他的消息。”

切尼也与民主党人一起发言支持该法案，他说班农在袭击前一天1月5日的播客上的声明是“令人震惊和站不住脚的。”

“他说所有的地狱都要散了。他说，‘我们正朝着目标前进，’”她说。“在那天和袭击期间，这个会议厅里有一些人和我以及我们其他人一起被疏散。似乎已经忘记了当下危险的人们。对我们宪法的攻击，对我们国会的攻击。你听到的人会说，这个委员会、这个立法和这张传票根本没有立法目的。

“毫无疑问，班农先生知道的远比他说的要多，”她继续说道。“毫无疑问，所有的地狱都散了。问问那天受伤保护我们的几十名勇敢的警察就知道了。美国人民应该听到他的证词。”

包括切尼和金辛格在内的9名共和党人投票支持民主党人蔑视班农:众议员安东尼·冈萨雷斯、彼得·梅耶尔、弗雷德·厄普顿、南希·梅斯、约翰·卡特科、布莱恩·菲茨帕特里克和杰米·埃雷拉·比特勒。众议员迈克·辛普森投了“是”票，但把它改成了“否”

今年早些时候，与民主党投票的九名共和党人中有两人——菲茨帕特里克和梅斯——没有投票弹劾前总统唐纳德·特朗普。几名投票弹劾特朗普的共和党人没有支持蔑视班农的努力。

梅斯在投票后在国会大厦外对记者说，考虑到共和党人明年可能夺回众议院，她希望维护国会的传票权。

加州众议院少数党领袖凯文·麦卡锡周四早些时候辩称，1月6日特别委员会对班农证词的传票是“无效的”，因为共和党人没有在该小组任职，并声称民主党人正在利用该小组针对他们的政治对手。

然而，众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)拒绝让麦卡锡推荐的五名成员中的两名成员入席，因为麦卡锡对2020年选举的有效性提出了毫无根据的说法，共和党人决定不参加该小组。此前，共和党在5月份扼杀了一项努力，即建立一个由两党选出的成员组成的独立委员会，调查1月6日的袭击。

“发出无效传票削弱了我们的权力，而不是投反对票，”麦卡锡说，他为共和党今晚以压倒性多数投票反对蔑视国会关押班农的计划辩护。“[班农]有权去法院看看他是否有行政特权。我不知道他有没有，但委员会也不知道。”

他的信息是在周三发给共和党议员的一份备忘录之后发出的，在该备忘录中，众议院共和党领导人辩称，1月6日传唤班农获取记录和证词的特别委员会“正在推行一项党派议程，将1月6日的袭击政治化”，而不是“进行真诚的调查。”

当被问及共和党支持这项努力的重要性时，佩洛西在每周新闻发布会上说，共和党人有责任投票以藐视法庭的方式拘留班农。

佩洛西对记者说:“因为他们宣誓保护和捍卫美国宪法。

她说:“我们的宪法和我们的创始人的天才之处在于分权制衡，如果事实上你去否定一个政府部门对另一个部门的制衡能力，那么你就是在破坏宪法。

“就重要性而言，这超越了班农。你会认为，如果他们宣誓保护和捍卫宪法，他们会投票支持制衡制度，”她说。

美国司法部起诉藐视国会已经38年了:环境保护署官员丽塔·拉维尔于1983年被起诉。陪审团最终认定拉维尔无罪。

民主党领导的众议院在2019年以藐视国会罪将前司法部长比尔·巴尔(Bill Barr)和商务部长威尔伯·罗斯(Wilbur Ross)拘留，理由是他们无视记录传票，但特朗普司法部没有受理此案。

如果司法部指控班农，他最终被判有罪，他可能面临最高一年的监禁和最高10万美元的罚款。

House votes to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt

The House of Representatives voted to hold Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress on Thursday for defying a congressional subpoena by the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

The vote fell largely along party lines: 229-202, with nine Republicans voting with Democrats.

Select committee Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said in debate ahead of the vote that allowing Bannon to ignore their subpoena would set a dangerous precedent.

"To my colleagues who choose to vote against enforcing the subpoena, you are saying to all future men and women who are called before this body that they can ignore a subpoena from Congress without consequence," he said. "The consequences of that vote won't be limited to this investigation and this subpoena alone. Your vote will be given serious long-lasting damage to Congress. And that, in turn, will do serious damage to our country which we all love dearly."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed the resolution shortly after the House vote and tweeted out a photo.

Her office told ABC News the referral has now been formally transmitted to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The Justice Department will now decide whether to prosecute Bannon.

The select committee, a nine-member panel, voted unanimously Tuesday evening to send a report recommending contempt charges to the full House.

GOP Reps. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill, the two Republicans who sit on the committee, voted with all Democrats to advance to debate on Thursday. House GOP leaders had whipped their members to vote "no."

But Democrats argued on the House floor that lawmakers have a Constitutional responsibility of oversight.

"Mr. Bannon's willful disregard for the select committee's subpoena demonstrates his utter contempt for the American people's right to know how the attacks on January 6 came about," Kinzinger said. "His own words strongly suggest that the actions of the mob that stormed the Capitol and invaded this very chamber came as no surprise to him. He and a few others, were by all accounts, involved in planning that day's events and encouraged by those who attacked the Capitol, our officers and our democracy."

"I have no doubt that Mr. Bannon's scorn for our subpoena is real. But no one, and I repeat, no one is above the law," Kinzinger said. "And we need to hear from him."

Cheney, also speaking with Democrats in favor of the bill, said Bannon's statements on his podcast on Jan. 5, the day before the attack, were "shocking and indefensible."

"He said all hell is going to break loose. He said, 'We are coming in right over the target,'" she said. "There are people in this chamber right now who were evacuated with me and the rest of us that day and during the attack. People who seem to have forgotten the danger of the moment. The assault on our Constitution, the assault on our Congress. People who you will hear argue that there is simply no legislative purpose for this committee, this legislation and this subpoena," she said.

"There is no doubt that Mr. Bannon knows far more than what he said," she continued. "There is no doubt that all hell did broke loose. Just ask the scores of brave police officers who were injured that day protecting us. The American people deserve to hear his testimony."

Including Cheney and Kinzinger, nine Republicans voted with Democrats to hold Bannon in contempt: Reps. Anthony Gonzalez, Peter Meijer, Fred Upton, Nancy Mace, John Katko, Brian Fitzpatrick and Jaime Herrera Beutler. Rep. Mike Simpson had voted "yes" but changed it to "no."

Two of the nine Republicans who voted with Democrats -- Fitzpatrick and Mace -- did not vote to impeach former President Donald Trump earlier this year. And several Republicans who did vote to impeach Trump did not back the effort to hold Bannon in contempt.

Mace, who spoke to reporters outside the Capitol after her vote, said she wanted to uphold the subpoena power of Congress, given that Republicans could retake the chamber next year.

House TV

Rep. Liz Cheney speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., Oct. 21, 2021.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., earlier Thursday argued that the Jan. 6 select committee's subpoena for Bannon's testimony was "invalid" because Republicans aren't serving on the panel and claimed Democrats are using the panel to target their political opponents.

However, Republicans decided not to sit on the panel after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to seat two of five members recommended by McCarthy for making baseless claims about the validity of 2020 election. That came after Republicans killed an effort in May to establish an independent commission of members selected by both parties to investigate the Jan. 6 attack.

"Issuing an invalid subpoena weakens our power, not voting against it," McCarthy said, defending Republicans' plans to overwhelmingly vote against holding Bannon in contempt of Congress this evening. "[Bannon] has a right to go to court to see if he has executive privilege or not. I don't know if he has it or not, but neither does the committee."

His message follows a memo circulated to Republican lawmakers on Wednesday, in which House GOP leaders argued that the Jan. 6 select committee that subpoenaed Bannon for records and testimony is "pursuing a partisan agenda to politicize the Jan. 6 attack" instead of "conducting a good faith investigation."

Asked about the importance of GOP support on the effort, Pelosi said at her weekly press conference that it's Republicans' duty to vote to hold Bannon in contempt.

"Because they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi told reporters.

"The genius of our Constitution and our founders was the separation of powers checks and balances, if in fact you went to negate the ability of one check of another branch of government over another, then you are undermining the constitution," she said.

"This goes beyond Bannon in terms of its importance. And you would think that if they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, they would vote for the system of checks and balances," she said.

It's been 38 years since the Justice Department pursued contempt of Congress charges: Environmental Protection Agency official Rita Lavelle was indicted in 1983. A jury eventually found Lavelle not guilty.

The Democrat-led House held former Attorney General Bill Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress in 2019 for defying subpoenas for records, but the Trump Justice Department did not take up the case.

Bannon could face up to a year in prison and up to a $100,000 fine if the Justic Department charges him and he is eventually found guilty.