Former White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon was charged Friday with two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

He was indicted by a grand jury in Washington — a rare move by the Justice Department to escalate the consequences of a dispute involving Congress. Court records indicate only three such cases have been filed in D.C. since 1990.

The charges against Bannon each carry a maximum sentence of one year in jail and may serve as a warning to others seeking to avoid or defy the Jan. 6 committee.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the charges reflect the Justice Department’s commitment to “show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law.”

Neither a lawyer for Bannon nor a spokesperson immediately responded to requests for comment. He is expected to turn himself in next week ahead of his first court appearance in the case.

Bannon, 67, was subpoenaed on Sept. 23, one of a number of former advisers to President Donald Trump who have balked at answering the select committee’s questions about the events before and during the riot that sought to prevent Congress from formally certifying the election of President Biden.

Bannon worked in the White House in 2017, but the committee is focused on his conversations and activities as an outside adviser and activist in the run-up to Jan. 6 when hundreds of Trump supporters protesting the election’s outcome turned violent, attacked police and stormed into the Capitol building, forcing lawmakers to flee for their safety.

In particular, the House select committee wants to question Bannon about conversations Jan. 5 at the Willard Hotel, when pro-Trump activists sought to convince Republican lawmakers to block certification of the election. The committee’s subpoena also noted that Bannon was quoted predicting “hell is going to break loose” on Jan. 6.

David Laufman, a former senior Justice Department official now in private practice, said it is unclear if even criminal charges will persuade Bannon to cooperate.

“But it was essential for the Justice Department to hold Mr. Bannon accountable for his brazen flouting of the subpoena, and in doing so to send a message to others who might defy the select committee’s investigative authorities,” he said. Laufman represents two of the Capitol Police officers who responded to the riot.

The panel has issued subpoenas to at least 20 Trump aides, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows did not appear Friday for a scheduled deposition, officials said.

In a joint statement, House panel chairman Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Meadows actions “defy the law” and will force the committee to consider “contempt or other proceedings to enforce the subpoena.”

They said the committee has already talked with more than 150 people who are cooperating and providing information to the investigation.

“Mr. Meadows, Mr. Bannon, and others who go down this path won’t prevail in stopping the Select Committee’s effort getting answers for the American people about January 6th, making legislative recommendations to help protect our democracy, and helping ensure nothing like that day ever happens again” the two lawmakers said.

Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark appeared for a closed door interview with the panel last week, but he refused to answer questions about whether Trump attempted to use the department to overturn the election, according to people familiar with the matter.

Others who were believed to have been at the Willard Hotel and engaged in discussions ahead of Jan. 6 also have been subpoenaed as lawmakers examine what role, if any, the Trump team’s so-called command center there played in the violence that followed.

Other individuals subpoenaed include Trump’s 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien, senior adviser Jason Miller, national executive assistant Angela McCallum and former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Earlier this week the panel issued subpoenas to 10 other Trump administration officials, including John McEntee, the former White House personnel director, Ben Williamson, a former deputy assistant to the president, Nicholas Luna, the former president’s personal assistant, and Molly Michael, the Oval Office operations coordinator.

The charges against Bannon are misdemeanors, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

The case marks Bannon’s latest brush with the criminal justice system since becoming a close adviser to Trump.

In 2020, he was charged in a federal case alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon, who had pleaded not guilty, was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with “We Build the Wall” while representing to the organization’s backers that all of the money was being used for construction. He was pardoned before the case could go to trial — one of Trump’s last acts as president.

Bannon also was a key witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and ultimately testified as a prosecution witness against Trump confidante Roger Stone, who was convicted by a jury and also pardoned.

Court records indicate that the three similar contempt cases have been filed in D.C. federal court since 1990 all resulted in guilty pleas.

President Ronald Reagan’s former assistant secretary of state Elliott Abrams and former senior CIA official Alan D. Fiers Jr., each served less than a year of probation and community service for taking part in a cover up of the Iran-contra scandal, court records show. Fiers and Abrams were pardoned by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Scott J. Bloch, former head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers during the George W. Bush administration, was sentenced in 2013 to two years of probation and a day of jail for having files erased from government computers and misleading Congress about his conduct, according to court records.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), one of Trump’s most fervent defenders on Capitol Hill, noted on Twitter that in two more recent instances of contempt votes by Republican majorities — against then-Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012, and former IRS official Lois Lerner in 2014 — the Justice Department decided not to file charges.