Bannon, 67, said in his podcast before storming Parliament House that “all hell is about to break”, but would not explain it to a House committee. The US Justice Department reports that Bannon is now being charged with that denial. He was called in mid-October, but he called for the right of presidents to keep certain documents and conversations confidential. However, the committee, which examines Trump’s role in removing his supporters from the Capitol in the House of Representatives, believes the argument is no longer because Trump is no longer president.

Parliament’s House of Commons last voted in favor of an impetus for further action by the judiciary. As a strategist, Bannon was a key figure in Trump’s 2016 election victory and in his early years as president. Last year he was accused of misleading moneylenders to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Trump pardoned Bannon earlier this year in one of his last acts as president. He was acquitted by a judge in May after much legal wrangling in this fraud case.

Bannon faces a prison sentence ranging from 30 days to a year, but the legal battle could go on for months or even years, undermining the work of the commission of inquiry.