Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Ex-Trump ally Bannon given four months’ jail
STEVE Bannon, an ally of former president Donald Trump, has been sentenced to serve four months behind bars after defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
The judge allowed Bannon to stay free pending an appeal and also imposed a fine of 6,500 dollars as part of the sentence.
Bannon was convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents.
US District Judge Carl Nichols handed down the sentence after saying the law was clear that contempt of Congress is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of at least one month behind bars.
Bannon’s lawyers had argued the judge could have sentenced him to probation instead. Prosecutors had asked for Bannon to be sent to jail for six months.
The House panel had sought Bannon’s testimony over his involvement in Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Bannon has yet to testify or provide any documents to the committee, prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors argued Bannon, 68, deserved the longer sentence because he had pursued a “bad faith strategy” and his public statements disparaging the committee itself made it clear he wanted to undermine their effort to get to the bottom of the violent attack and keep anything like it from happening again.
“He chose to hide behind fabricated claims of executive privilege and advice of counsel to thumb his nose at Congress,” said prosecutor JP Cooney. “Your honour, the defendant is not above the law and that is exactly what makes this case important,” Mr Cooney said. “It must be made clear to the public, to the citizens, that no one is above the law.”
The defence, meanwhile, said he was not acting in bad faith, but trying to avoid running afoul of executive privilege objections Mr Trump had raised when Bannon was first served with a committee subpoena last year.
The one-time presidential adviser said he wanted a Trump lawyer in the room, but the committee would not allow it.
Many other former White House aides have testified with only their own counsel. Bannon had been fired from the White House in 2017 and was a private citizen when he was consulting with the then-president before the riot.
Before the judge handed down the sentence, Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, gave an impassioned argument railing against the committee and saying Bannon had simply done as his lawyer told him to do under Mr Trump’s executive privilege objections.
“Quite frankly, Mr Bannon should make no apology. No American should make any apology for the manner in which Mr Bannon proceeded in this case,” he said.
Mr Schoen also defended Bannon’s public remarks about the committee: “Telling the truth about this committee or speaking one’s mind about this committee, it’s not only acceptable in this country, it’s an obligation if one believes it to be true.”
As he walked into court yesterday, Bannon told reporters, “This illegitimate regime, their judgment day is on November 8 when the Biden administration ends.”