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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is likening federal prosecutors to "communist regimes" for recommending Steve Bannon serve half a year in prison and pay a hefty fine for publicly flouting a congressional subpoena.
The firebrand Georgia Republican on Wednesday blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ), which earlier called for Bannon to receive six months in prison and a fine of $200,000. Bannon, former adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, was convicted by a grand jury of defying a subpoena from the House January 6 committee. Greene follows other conservatives who've denounced federal law enforcement as they've scrutinized Trump and his allies.
Bannon is scheduled to be sentenced Friday in district court in Washington, D.C., for his contempt of Congress convictions. The DOJ made its recommendations in its sentencing memorandum filed Monday. Prosecutors argued that Bannon be sentenced to a harsher penalty than the minimum one-month prison term for his "complete and unremitting" noncompliance and for disparaging members of the committee on his podcast.
"The DOJ wants Steve Bannon to serve 6 mo in jail & pay $200,000 in fines because he used his First Amendment right of freedom of speech on his show to defend himself publicly and they are offended by his speech," Greene said in a tweet. "This is what communist regimes do, not guardians of 'democracy.'"
The DOJ wants Steve Bannon to serve 6 mo in jail & pay $200,000 in fines because he used his First Amendment right of freedom of speech on his show to defend himself publicly and they are offended by his speech.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene?? (@RepMTG) October 19, 2022
This is what communist regimes do, not guardians of “democracy.” https://t.co/06hTgNe7Pk
Formed last year to investigate the run-up to the 2021 Capitol insurrection, the House January 6 committee has turned its attention to connections between Trump's inner circle and efforts to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election.
The committee subpoenaed Bannon last year, demanding he turn over documents and testify. Bannon insisted he was protected by executive privilege from a subpoena he said was unlawful. But the DOJ argued in its sentencing memorandum that Bannon acted in "bad faith," stating that lawyers for the committee and Trump told him he wasn't protected by executive privilege.
"From the time he was initially subpoenaed, the Defendant has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country's peaceful transfer of power," the DOJ wrote in the memorandum.
The DOJ memorandum pointed out that as Bannon resisted the subpoena, he made multiple statements outside courthouses and on his War Room podcast attacking the criminal justice system and ridiculing members of the House January 6 committee. He called the panel's chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, "gutless" and a "total absolute disgrace."
After being released from custody pending his trial, a defiant Bannon told reporters he was going on the "offense" and called out U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
"I'm telling you now, this is going to be the misdemeanor from hell for Merrick Garland, [Speaker of the House] Nancy Pelosi and [President] Joe Biden," Bannon said.
As his trial was scheduled to begin in July, Bannon tried to "leverage the information he had unlawfully withheld from the Committee to engineer dismissal of his criminal prosecution," the DOJ said in the memorandum. But Bannon has still not produced a single document to the committee, the DOJ said.
M. Evan Corcoran, lawyer for Bannon, argued in his sentencing memorandum that prison sentences were unusual for defying congressional subpoenas. Corcoran also argued that Bannon was following advice from his lawyer at the time.
Corcoran says Bannon should get probation, pointing out that Trump aides Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino Jr. also didn't comply with subpoenas from the committee and weren't charged.
"Should a person be jailed where the prosecutor declined to prosecute others
who were similarly situated—with the only difference being that this person uses their voice to express strongly held political views?" Corcoran wrote in the memorandum. "If the answer to any of these questions is no, then a sentence of probation is warranted."
Newsweek has reached out to the DOJ for comment.
About the writer
Jake Thomas is a Newsweek night reporter based in Portland, Oregon. His focus is U.S. national politics, crime and public ... Read more