Steve Bannon gets 4 months in prison on contempt charges

Steve Bannon, a former campaign manager and White House staffer for former President Donald Trump, was sentenced Friday to serve four months behind bars after defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to stay free pending appeal and also imposed a fine of $6,500 as part of the sentence. Bannon was convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents.

As he walked into federal court in Washington, D.C., Bannon told reporters, “This illegitimate regime, their judgment day is on 8 November when the Biden administration ends.”

Before the judge handed down the sentence, Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, gave an impassioned argument railing against the committee and saying Bannon had simply done was his lawyer told him to do under Trump’s executive privilege objections.

“Quite frankly, Mr. Bannon should make no apology. No American should make any apology for the manner in which Mr. Bannon proceeded in this case,” he said.

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Nichols handed down the sentence after saying the law was clear that contempt of Congress is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of at least one month behind bars. Bannon’s lawyers had argued the judge could’ve sentenced him to probation instead. Prosecutors had asked for Bannon to be sent to jail for six months.

“In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions,” Nichols said before he imposed the sentence. “Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes.”

The House panel had sought Bannon’s testimony over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Bannon has yet to testify or provide any documents to the committee.

Prosecutors argued Bannon, 68, deserved the longer sentence because he had pursued a “bad faith strategy,” and his public statements disparaging the committee itself made it clear he wanted to undermine their effort to get to the bottom of the violent attack and keep anything like it from happening again.

“Your honor, the defendant is not above the law and that is exactly what makes this case important,” said prosecutor J.P. Cooney. “It must be made clear to the public, to the citizens, that no one is above the law.

Leaving the courthouse after the sentencing, Bannon said he believed Attorney General Merrick Garland would be impeached and vowed a vigorous appeal. “This thing about ‘I’m above the law’ is a total lie.”

Bannon is also facing separate money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges related to the “We Build the Wall” campaign in New York. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Bannon falsely promised donors that all money would go to constructing a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, but instead was involved with transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to third-party entities and using them to funnel payments to two other people involved in the scheme.

When President Joe Biden, for his part, was asked about the sentence as he left the White House, he said: “I never have a reaction to Steve Bannon.”

With News Wire Services