Prosecutors admitted that their attempts to obtain the email and phone logs of Steve Bannon's lawyer gathered information belonging to other people also named Robert Costello, Politico reports. Costello represents Bannon in a contempt of Congress case stemming from his refusal of a subpoena issued by the January 6 select committee. Bannon is facing two misdemeanor counts. His trial is set for July 18. Prosecutors say that their mistake in gathering communications from unrelated people also named Robert Costello has no bearing on the case, and that someone from Bannon's defense team leaked information about this mistake to the Daily Beast. Prosecutors asked a judge to question Bannon about whether he or anyone in his defense team leaked information, which might violate a court order governing evidence in the case.
Prosecutors insist that their mistakes are the result of common investigative practices that sometimes lead down blind alleys. They charge that Costello is attempting to create a scandal where none exists. Still they admit that in the case of one Gmail account, an incorrect middle name should have alerted them to the fact that they had the wrong Robert Costello. On that account, prosecutors obtained logs of calls from a related phone number as well as details on emails from the account. Bannon's defense is fighting to have all charges thrown out.
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