Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail Friday for contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House investigation into the Capitol riot, the first such sentence in over 50 years. He was also hit with a $6,500 fine.
Bannon has stated he intends to appeal the conviction because a federal judge ruled he could not argue at the trial that he considered his actions protected by Donald Trump’s claim of executive privilege. Bannon was not remanded into custody on Friday, as the judge allowed him to file his appeal before serving the sentence.
House investigators hoped to speak with the far-right provocateur, podcaster, and Oxford-layering enthusiast, who had served as Trump’s campaign manager in 2016, about his efforts to pressure Mike Pence to stop 2020 election’s certification. (Following Trump’s loss that November, Bannon returned to Trump’s circle as a major player in the attempt to prove bogus claims of widespread election fraud.) After he refused to comply with the investigation, the House voted to hold him in contempt. He was convicted in a July trial on two misdemeanor counts of refusing to provide testimony and documents to Congress.
Bannon has been in legal trouble for some time now. In August 2020, he was arrested on a boat and charged by federal prosecutors with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering for his role in an alleged scheme to raise money from Trump supporters purportedly to privately build a section of the southern border wall. Prosecutors alleged that the organizers of the group, including Bannon, pocketed the money. On Trump’s final day in office, he pardoned Bannon — but not his scheme partners — sparing him from federal prosecution but not from state investigators. Last month, New York authorities charged him with felony counts of money laundering and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty.
