Steve Bannon Prison Sentence: Everything We Know

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Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist under the Trump administration, was ordered on Thursday to self-surrender to prison next month.

Bannon must report to prison on July 1, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered, requiring former President Donald Trump's ally to serve out his four-month sentence while he pursues an appeal, as requested by the Department of Justice.

The decision comes after Bannon was convicted of defying a subpoena to testify in front of the January 6 House Select Committee. The committee led an investigation into the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump protested the results of the 2020 election.

Newsweek reached out to Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, via email for comment.

The Context

In July 2022, Bannon was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to sit for a deposition or provide documents to the House January 6 Committee related to his involvement in former President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

What We Know

Last month, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld Bannon's criminal conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In May, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb Jr. wrote to U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, saying there was now "no legal basis" for a stay on Bannon's prison sentence. Nichols sentenced Bannon to four months in prison in October 2022 but allowed him to remain free while pursuing his appeal.

Shortly after the Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling, Bannon's lawyer told Newsweek that "Today's decision is wrong as a matter of law, and it reflects a very dangerous view of the threshold for criminal liability for any defendant in our country and for future political abuses of the congressional hearing process."

Steve Bannon speaks to reporters — Former Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Bannon speaks to reporters in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 2022. On Thursday, Bannon was ordered to surrender to prison on July 1. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Views

According to the Associated Press, Bannon spoke to reporters outside of the courthouse on Thursday and said, "I've got great lawyers, and we're going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to."

On X, formerly Twitter, the popular account End Wokeness criticized the judge in Bannon's case, comparing the War Room podcast host to President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and former White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"A judge just sent Steve Bannon to prison for ignoring a congressional subpoena. Hunter did the same thing. No prison. Fauci lied under oath. No prison," the post said.

In a post to TruthSocial, Trump said, "It is a Total and Complete American Tragedy that the Crooked Joe Biden Department of Injustice is so desperate to jail Steve Bannon, and every other Republican, for that matter, for not SUBMITTING to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, made up of all Democrats, and two CRAZED FORMER REPUBLICAN LUNATICS, Cryin' Adam Kinzinger, and Liz "Out of Her Mind" Cheney."

"It has been irrefutably proven that it was the Unselects who committed actual crimes when they deleted and destroyed all material evidence, in a pathetic attempt to protect Crazy Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats from the TRUTH — THAT I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG. The unAmerican Weaponization of our Law Enforcement has reached levels of Illegality never thought possible before. INDICT THE UNSELECT J6 COMMITTEE FOR ILLEGALLY DELETING AND DESTROYING ALL OF THEIR "FINDINGS!" MAGA2024," Trump wrote.