After the decision of the American House of Representatives, it is now Justice Minister Merrick Garland's turn.

As expected, the first Chamber of Congress voted on Thursday for a bill alleging disregard for Congress, Steve Bannon, former chief advisor to former President Donald Trump.

It is now up to the Ministry of Justice to initiate criminal investigations.

In the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, 229 MPs voted in favor, 202 against.

Nine Republicans around MP Liz Cheney voted for the motion.

She is the vice-chair of the January 6th committee of inquiry, which is supposed to investigate the storming of the Capitol.

This had unanimously referred the motion to the plenary on Tuesday.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

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Bannon is charged with disobeying Congress for ignoring a subpoena before the committee.

His attorney told the panel that Bannon was following the line of Trump, who is legally defending himself against the subpoenas and demands for inspection of the files with reference to executive privilege.

Bannon, who had not been a member of the Trump administration for a long time in January 2021 but continued to support the then president, had said in his podcast on January 5: "Tomorrow all hell breaks loose." The committee also has other former employees of the White House and Justice Department to investigate whether and how the storming of Congress was planned.

Rep. Cheney, who broke with Trump, said Thursday: Bannon "knew what was going to happen before it happened".

Addressing her fellow Republican parliamentary group, she said: “There are people in this room who were brought to safety that day, during this attack, with me and the rest of us.

People who now seem to have forgotten the danger of this moment. ”Republican parliamentary group leader Kevin McCarthy believes the committee and the subpoenas are illegitimate and politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Biden corrected an earlier statement about the Bannon case.

A week ago he replied in the affirmative when asked if he thought the Justice Department should sue Bannon.

On Thursday he said it was inappropriate.

The Minister of Justice decides independently.