Longtime Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon has been sentenced to four months in prison for his refusal to comply in the January 6 committee after receiving a subpoena.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison on Friday after a lengthy legal battle that began when Bannon stated publicly that he would refuse to comply with a subpoena from the partisan, anti-Trump January 6 committee.
Bannon was found guilty in July, with a jury finding him guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with the subpoena.
Multiple reports indicate Bannon’s sentence will be temporarily stayed while he and his legal team appeal today’s decision.
Steve Bannon gets 4 months in prison for contempt of Congress for defying January 6 subpoena https://t.co/nyFhaC7dU9 pic.twitter.com/QkN7ut3gRl
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 21, 2022
Judge Carl Nichols sided with prosecution, and appeared to admonish Bannon for daring to denigrate the work of the January 6 committee during sentencing, declaring that Bannon showed “no remorse” for refusing to comply and “attacked the select committee at every turn,” according to The Daily Mail.
Prosecution wanted at least six months, however. Perhaps explaining the sentencing discrepency, the judge noted that Bannon appeared to be following legal advice.
“Bannon did not completely ignore the subpoena or fail to engage with the committee at all,” Nichols acceded. Still, he claimed that “others must be deterred from committing similar crime,” and thus justified the prison stint for the 68-year-old.
After Bannon’s conviction earlier this year, the media operator-turned-podcast mogul vowed that the trial’s results would not stop him.
“This is what happens in the last days of a dying regime,” Bannon told reporters as he was escorted away from a federal courthouse in September.
“They will never shut me up. They’ll have to kill me first. I have not yet begun to fight,” said Bannon, hands cuffed behind his back.
“They will never shut me up, they’ll have to kill me first.”
~Steve BannonIn every country where freedom was ripped away from the people by tyrants, that’s exactly the order it happened.
First they tried to silence them, then they killed them.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene???????? (@RepMTG) September 8, 2022
This is a breaking news story and may be updated with additional information as it becomes available.
This news and commentary by Tom Pappert originally appeared on Valiant News.
