It’s time to forget about trying to shame Republicans into pursuing accountability for the elite perpetrators involved in Donald Trump’s effort to overthrow U.S. democracy. The ugly truth of the matter is that the great majority of them have made their decision on this matter already.

And they aren’t going back.

The House will soon vote to hold Stephen K. Bannon, a onetime top adviser to the former president, in criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection. The matter will be referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

How many Republicans will decide that placing Trump and his allies beyond accountability entirely takes priority over Bannon’s obligation to honor a lawful congressional subpoena in an investigation into a violent attack on the U.S. government? Virtually all of them.