Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former president Donald Trump, has been sentenced to serve four months behind bars after refusing to appear before a committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
The judge allowed Bannon to stay free pending appeal and also imposed a fine of $6,500 (£5,833) as part of the sentence.
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 wrote.
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.
US district judge Carl 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.
“In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions,” Nichols said before he imposed the sentence.
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 wrote.
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.
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“He chose to hide behind fabricated claims of executive privilege and advice of counsel to thumb his nose at Congress,” said prosecutor J.P. Cooney.
Bannon’s lawyers had argued the judge could’ve sentenced him to probation instead.
As he walked into court on Friday, Bannon told reporters, “This illegitimate regime, their judgment day is on November 8 when the Biden administration ends.” Bannon is also facing separate money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges in New York related to the “We Build the Wall” campaign. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say Bannon falsely promised donors that all money would go to constructing a wall at the US-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.