Steve Bannon, a former top aide to Donald Trump, was sentenced Friday morning to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine for criminal contempt of Congress after defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
The judge will defer sentencing if Bannon files an appeal before November 15, which his team has signaled he is ready to do.
Judge Carl Nichols agreed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that Bannon “showed no remorse” for his actions and “assaulted the select committee at every turn.”
He said Bannon “has yet to prove his intention to comply with the subpoena.”
He struck down Bannon’s executive privilege argument, noting that Bannon was a private citizen in the run-up to the rebellion. “Some of the information required by the subpoena is information under which no conceivable claim for executive privilege could have been made,” Nichols said.
Bannon speaks to the media as he arrives at federal courthouse to be sentenced on October 21, 2022 in Washington, DC
Bannon carried a copy of Friday’s Financial Times into the courtroom
However, the judge found that Bannon appeared to only be following legal advice and noted that he had some ties to the committee. “Bannon did not completely ignore the subpoena or engage with the committee at all.”
He said the fact that the committee did not go to court to try to enforce the subpoena, but immediately instituted prosecution, “pitfalls in Bannon’s favor.”
However, the judge noted the importance of honoring Congress’ authority, saying “others must be discouraged from committing similar crimes.”
As he entered the courthouse on Friday morning, Bannon told a group of reporters: “Remember this is an illegitimate regime. Her court day is November 8, when the Biden administration ends.
“By the way, and remember: smash the CCP,” Bannon added, comparing the Biden government to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Trump strategist did not speak during his sentencing.
Bannon, 68, is the first Trump ally to be jailed for being linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. He was the first person to be found guilty of contempt of Congress since Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy were convicted in 1974.
The charge is only a misdemeanor, but the DOJ had recommended a six-month sentence and a $200,000 fine, with prosecutors claiming he showed “malicious” in approaching the subpoena. Bannon’s attorney had asked for parole.
Each of the two counts of contempt of Congress he faces carries a minimum of 30 days imprisonment and a fine of between $100 and $100,000.
“In my view, the law has a mandatory minimum of one month and a mandatory maximum of 12 months,” the judge said.
The Trump rat appears outside the DC courthouse as Bannon’s sentencing begins
Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, argued there was no minimum of one month for the contempt charge, but Nichols maintained the minimum.
He argued that Bannon was strictly abiding by the Constitution when he asserted that executive privilege prevented him from testifying. The defense did not apologize.
‘Frankly, Mr Bannon shouldn’t apologize. No American should apologize for the way Mr. Bannon handled this case,” Schoen said. “There’s nothing here to stop you. There is nothing to punish here.”
The defense claimed prosecutors were showing “zeal to make Mr. Bannon their trophy.”
Schoen even ripped into Trump’s attorney Justin Clark, who was being questioned for prosecutors.
‘He’s nothing but a thug. I wouldn’t believe anything he says, one of what you might call the Three Stooges… He lied to me personally. He ripped me off personally.’
A jury found Bannon guilty after just three hours of deliberation because he refused to testify or offer documents before the January 6 committee in July.
A day before Bannon was found guilty, the committee played a clip of the strategist saying that Trump plans to declare victory in 2020, whatever the results.
According to the committee, Bannon spoke to Trump at least twice on Jan. 5, attended a planning meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC, and said on his podcast, “Tomorrow all hell will break loose.”
Another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, was charged with contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena and faces court in November. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former head of social media Dan Scavino were expelled from the House of Representatives for contempt of Congress, but the DOJ declined to pursue a prosecution.