Former White Home adviser Stephen Bannon was sentenced Friday to 4 months in jail and ordered to pay a $6,500 high quality on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for failing to adjust to a subpoena from the Home January 6 committee. The primary rely was for his refusal to look for a deposition and the second was for refusal to show over paperwork. A jury reached the choice after lower than three hours of deliberation in July.
Bannon’s conviction was the primary related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot for anybody in former President Donald Trump’s internal circle, though one other former Trump White Home aide, Peter Navarro, faces a trial in November for contempt of Congress. It additionally marks the primary conviction immediately related to the work of the January 6 committee.
In a press release issued after the decision in July, US Legal professional Matthew Graves stated, “The subpoena to Stephen Bannon was not an invite that could possibly be rejected or ignored. Mr. Bannon had an obligation to look earlier than the Home Choose Committee to provide testimony and supply paperwork. His refusal to take action was deliberate and now a jury has discovered that he should pay the results.”
Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Liz Cheney (R-WY), the chair and vice chair of the January 6 committee, celebrated the decision on the time. “The conviction of Steve Bannon is a victory for the rule of legislation and an vital affirmation of the Choose Committee’s work,” they stated. “Because the prosecutor said, Steve Bannon ‘selected allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the legislation.’ Simply as there have to be accountability for all these liable for the occasions of January sixth, anybody who obstructs our investigation into these issues ought to face penalties. Nobody is above the legislation.”
Bannon first got here to nationwide prominence operating Breitbart Information, the hard-right web site that grew to become a key conservative information outlet within the early 2010s. He used Breitbart as a platform to push populist conservative views, significantly on immigration, and have become a key energy dealer on the appropriate of the Republican Get together.
Lengthy an ardent advocate for Trump, he joined the Republican nominee’s struggling marketing campaign in August 2016 and helped Trump pull off his slim upset victory over Hillary Clinton. He then spent a tempestuous seven-month interval as Trump’s chief strategist within the White Home, the place he was a key determine within the infighting and bickering that outlined the start of the Trump administration.
After leaving the White Home, Bannon had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump. Nevertheless, by the tip of Trump’s time period, he had labored his means again into the president’s good graces and launched a preferred pro-Trump podcast. The outgoing president returned the favor by pardoning Bannon on fraud fees that arose from allegations Bannon had diverted cash for private use that had been donated to a charity pledging to construct a border wall between america and Mexico.
The previous White Home strategist performed a key function in supporting Trump’s false claims of voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election, which put him within the committee’s crosshairs. He attended a January 2021 technique assembly on the Willard Resort with different allies of the previous president who had been making an attempt to reverse the election outcomes, and was in contact with Trump within the days earlier than the assault on the Capitol.
Replace, October 21, 11:25 am: This story was initially printed on July 22 and has been up to date to incorporate Bannon’s jail sentence and high quality.