By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Thursday for contempt of Congress charges against Steve Bannon. He was a long-standing aide of former President Donald Trump and refused to cooperate in its investigation into the deadly attack at Capitol on Jan. 6.

Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker, stated that the Democratic-led House of Representatives would vote “to approve this contempt resolution in order to discover the truth.” According to her, Bannon was in possession of information that would be central for a House select panel investigation.

Bannon refused to cooperate with subpoenas from committees for documents and testimony. He cited Trump’s assertion – which some legal scholars dispute – that Trump’s communications are covered by executive privilege.

On Tuesday, the unanimous vote of the select committee investigating the attack on Capitol House on Jan. 6, was in favor. This set the stage for the vote at the full House where Democrats have a narrow majority. Approval of the motion will be referred to the Department of Justice.

Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the United States has not yet indicated how his department would respond. On Thursday, he told the House Judiciary Committee that the department would “apply facts” to make “consistent decisions with the principles and prosecution.”

Trump’s congressional fellow Republicans opposed the establishment of either an independent or a selective committee to probe the events that occurred Jan. 6 when thousands of Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol in protest of his loss by Democrat Joe Biden.

The nine-member committee’s select members include only two Republicans, Representatives Liz Cheney (Republican) and Adam Kinzinger (Republican).

The 1857 contempt of Congress statute states that the Justice Department must bring a House contempt ticket before a grand jury.

However, the Justice Department traditionally has maintained that the Justice Department makes final decisions about whether to bring criminal charges against individuals who violate congressional subpoenas. G. Gordon Liddy, a Watergate conspirator was found guilty by a court of law in 1974.

When McCarthy was asked about Thursday’s vote, McCarthy (House Republican Leader) said that the subpoena to Bannon for testimony was invalid, making the same executive privilege claim Bannon made.

On the morning of the attack, four people were killed and one Capitol officer was injured in the defense of the government. There were hundreds of injured police officers, and at least four took their lives.

Trump insists that his loss was fraud-related, and continues to do so. This claim has been rejected by multiple courts and state election officials, as well as members of Trump’s own government.