Earlier today Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail for refusing to appear and be questioned by the congressional J6 committee. However, Judge Carl Nichols has temporarily deferred the sentence pending an appeal by Bannon which will likely go into next year.
More than half the country holds contempt for congress, and the targeting of Bannon is transparently political. A defiant Steve Bannon spoke outside the courthouse after his sentence was delivered. WATCH (prompted):
WASHINGTON DC – A federal judge has sentenced longtime Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to four months in jail for defying a subpoena from lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. He will also be required to pay a $6,500 fine if his convictions stand.
U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, said Bannon inappropriately defied the House’s select committee on a matter of significant national interest, and even after roadblocks to his testimony had been removed.
“Flaunting a Congressional subpoena betrays a lack of respect for the legislative branch which represents the will of the people of the United States,” Nichols said during a sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse a few blocks from the Capitol. “In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions.”
Nichols cushioned the blow of the four-month jail term by opting to allow Bannon, 68, to remain free pending appeal, which is likely to push the issue well into next year and perhaps longer.
A jury convicted Bannon in July on two charges of contempt of Congress — one for refusing to testify to the Jan. 6 select committee, another for refusing to provide relevant documents to the panel.
The select committee subpoenaed Bannon in September 2021 as it sought testimony from close Trump aides involved in efforts to help him subvert the 2020 election. Prosecutors charged him in November 2021, three weeks after the House voted to hold him in contempt.
[…] Under federal law, the two misdemeanor counts Bannon was found guilty of each carried a minimum term of one month’s incarceration and a maximum of a year in prison. The Justice Department had asked Nichols to sentence Bannon to a six-month prison term. Prosecutors contended that the minimum sentence is mandatory, but Bannon’s lawyers argued that he could be sentenced to probation or to home confinement, rather than prison.
Nichols said several favors weighed in favor of a “substantial” sentence for Bannon — from the seriousness and significance of the Jan. 6 select committee probe to Bannon’s continued defiance of the select committee even after Trump purported in July to “waive” any assertion of executive privilege over his cooperation.
While many legal commentators have insisted that Bannon could not have had privileged conversations with Trump after Bannon left the White House staff in 2017, Nichols pointedly said Friday that such discussions might be covered by executive privilege.
However, the judge also seemed troubled that Bannon never produced any documents to the committee, even those that seemed certain not to be covered by any privilege Trump was asserting.
Nichols did acknowledge that Bannon appeared to rely on his lawyer’s advice, and he noted that the Jan. 6 select committee opted against a civil lawsuit to enforce its subpoena. (read more)