From the NY Times:
With his criminal trial for contempt of Congress approaching, Stephen K. Bannon, an ally of former President Donald J. Trump’s who was involved in his plans to overturn the 2020 election, has informed the House committee investigating the Capitol attack that he is now willing to testify, according to two letters obtained by The New York Times.
His decision is a remarkable about-face for Mr. Bannon, who until Saturday had been among the most obstinate and defiant of the committee’s potential witnesses. He had promised to turn the criminal case against him into the “misdemeanor from hell” for the Justice Department.
But with the possibility of two years in jail and large fines looming on the horizon, Mr. Bannon has been authorized to testify by Mr. Trump, his lawyer told the committee late on Saturday in a letter, which was reported earlier by The Guardian.
Let's backtrack a tad (or a skosh, if you will, or maybe even a smidge) and take a look-see at the subpoena the January 6 Committee sent to Bannon way back in September of 2021.
In it the press release that accompanied the letter, The Committee wrote:
Stephen Bannon reportedly communicated with former President Trump on December 30th, 2020, urging him to focus his efforts on January 6th. Mr. Bannon also reportedly attended a gathering at the Willard Hotel on January 5th, 2021, as part of an effort to persuade Members of Congress to block the certification of the election the next day. Mr. Bannon is also quoted as stating, on January 5th, that “[a]ll Hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” [Link in original.]
We also know that Bannon held PA State Sen (and now GOP candidate for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano's Gettysburg meeting in high regard:
Before the [Adams County GOP Eisenhower Dinner], Bannon spoke with Adams County GOP Chair Charlotte Shaffer for his "War Room" news show.
The pair spoke about the 3 November movement, a Trump-centered Republican movement seeking to prove election fraud.
“One of the reasons I accepted the gracious invitation of Charlotte Shaffer, the chairman, was that this was the railhead of where 3 November started, the counter reaction, the great conference,” Bannon said on War Room.
Bannon was referring to an event in Gettysburg at which former Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani publicly protested the election results. Mastriano organized that event as a member of the Pennsylvania Senate Majority Policy Committee.
The date of the Gettysburg meeting was November 25, 2020 - well after Trump was first informed by his DOJ and his campaign that he'd lost the election:
Shortly after the 2020 election, as ballots were still being counted, the top data expert in President Donald J. Trump’s re-election campaign told him bluntly that he was going to lose.
In the weeks that followed, as Mr. Trump continued to insist that he had won, a senior Justice Department official told him repeatedly that his claims of widespread voting fraud were meritless, ultimately warning him that they would “hurt the country.”
Those concerns were echoed by the top White House lawyer, who told the president that he would be entering into a “murder-suicide pact” if he continued to pursue extreme plans to try to invalidate the results of the 2020 election.
Yet Mr. Trump — time and again — discounted the facts, the data and many of his own advisers as he continued to promote the lie of a stolen election, according to hundreds of pages of exhibits, interview transcripts and email correspondence assembled by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack for a legal filing released late Wednesday.
During the meeting, Trump called in and then this happened:
Then, with Trump attorney Jenna Ellis holding a cell phone to a microphone, the president himself addressed the crowd from Washington.
“This election was rigged, and we can’t let that happen,” Trump said falsely. “This election has to be turned around because we won Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all these swing states by a lot.”
Trump had already been informed that none of that was true.
That's what Steve Bannon referred to as a "railhead" in the "counter movement" to November 3.
State Senator Mastriano: Do you think your name will come up (as it already has) in testimony before The January 6 Committee?
Considering your involvement in Trump's attempted coup, doesn't that make you nervous?
And if not, shouldn't it?