criminal investigation. if he takes the fifth, obviously it looks terrible. there s a real appearance issue, but at that point you can t force him to testify unless you immunize him, a whole other process, but it s almost impossible to bring a criminal charge if someone has a legitimate fifth amendment right. we ll see if steve bannon used that right here. do you think steve bannon s testimony is critical to the investigation? sure. he was reportedly in trump s ear from the time of january 6th, leading up to january 6th. i mean, he s been one of donald trump s closest political advisers really from before the 2016 election, so, yeah, and there s plenty of evidence that steve bannon was centrally involved here. the committee said they chose bannon for a reap, so i think that there s a reason that they have picked this fight, and there s a reason they are willing to escalate it to the next level. obviously it sends a message, too, to other people who may be getting these subpoenas.
they very publicly step out and say no, we don t support this. no, this is wrong. this is in fact some version of a coup. that was the concern, but that s who jeffrey clark, is and that s why the committee wants to talk to him because they think he was trump s back door to try to overturn the department of justice and steal the election. tom foreman, thank you. you re welcome. now you re up to speed with where this investigation stands. let s break down where it s headed with cnn legal an light elie honig and cnn chief political analyst gloria borger. elie first, defying subpoenas, steve bannon wasn t working in the white house or anywhere close to the 2020 election. trump is no longer president so it seems this executive privilege argument is moot. where do things go from here? the big question, aprila, is how much of this defiance and foot-dragging is congress willing to take. they set these dead lyons.
shows that the committee, as they have told us, you know, quite frequently over the past couple of days, that they are not messing around in terms of their commitment to trying to get these witnesses to comply. bannon has been the most vocal in his direct opposition of their requests which is part of why you see them moving ahead in this fashion today, ana. they warned they were going to do it and said they would do it quickly, and sounds like they are putting that into action. ryan nobles, stand by. i want to bring in elie honig, our senior legal analyst. we ll pick up on the conversation that we were having earlier. we discussed that this was an expected move and now that it s been done remind us what the next steps are and how quickly this could move. ana, this is a powerful statement by the committee. they are not messing around. not playing games. you and i discussed about 20 minutes ago that steve bannon was the most likely person they would be focusing on. so the first step