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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will spend four months in prison for defying a subpoena issued to him to testify before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, violent attack at the U.S. Capitol.
U.S.
District Judge Carl Nichols Friday sentenced Bannon to four months behind bars
and fined him $6,500 as consequences for defying the committee, according to
The Associated Press. Mr. Bannon will remain free pending appeal.
Nichols
noted that the law was clear that contempt of Congress is subject to a
mandatory minimum sentence of at least one month behind bars, according to The Associated
Press. The four months sentence was less than the six months prosecutors had
demanded.
In July
Bannon was convicted for contempt of Congress after Mr. Bannon, a Trump ally refused
to honor an invitation to testify before the panel and to provide requested
documents.
“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 January
6 committee sought testimony from Bannon because of his participation in
meetings at the Willard Hotel in the days before the Capitol riot, which served
as a “command center” for Trump allies seeking to challenge the results of the
2020 presidential elections, the Washington Examiner reported.
"The
committee sought documents and testimony from the Defendant relevant to a
matter of national importance: the circumstances that led to a violent attack
on the Capitol and disruption of the peaceful transfer of power,"
prosecutors argued this week, according to the Washington Examiner. "In
response, the Defendant flouted the Committee's authority and ignored the
subpoena's demands."
Bannon had
argued that he was not compelled to produce documents or sit for testimony
because he was covered by former President Trump’s assertion of executive
privilege which he said superseded the legal authority of a congressional
subpoena, the Washington Examiner reported.
In
preparation of January 6 certification of Joe Biden’s victory Bannon and former
Trump aide Peter Navarro rallied House Republicans with allied senators to
challenge the counting of electors from several states won by Joe Biden in what
is dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep,” according to Politico. The lawmakers would
divide into teams that would prevent arguments on the House floor and help
extend the session deep into January 7 so that the Trump administration could
buy more time to perpetuate itself in power.
Prosecutors
said Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison because he pursued a “bad
faith strategy,” citing his public statements disparaging the committee.
“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, according to The Associated
Press.
“Your honor,
the defendant is not above the law and that is exactly what makes this case
important,” Cooney said. “It must be made clear to the public, to the citizens,
that no one is above the law.”
Bannon’s
defense counsel said he never acted in bad faith but was only trying to avoid
running afoul of executive privilege objections Trump had raised when Bannon
was first served with the subpoena last year
“Mr. Bannon
did not completely ignore the fact he had received the subpoena nor did he fail
to engage with the committee at all,” Nichols said.
Bannon’s
lawyer David Schoen said the former White House strategist was only following
what his lawyer asked 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.