‘Proud To Go To Prison:’ Steve Bannon Reports For 4-Month Sentence
KEY FACTS
Bannon held a press conference outside of the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, on Monday where he spoke to supporters and members of the media and said he was “proud to go to prison.”
“If this is what it takes to stand up to tyranny … to stand up to the Garland corrupt criminal DOJ … to stand up to Nancy Pelosi … to stand up to Joe Biden, I’m proud to do it,” he said, NBC News reported.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine in October 2022 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for not turning over records and not testifying before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
He tried to delay his sentence through legal challenges over the last two years—arguing he was protected from the House subpoena by executive privilege and because his attorney advised him not to comply—but his last appeal requesting the Supreme Court pause his sentence was denied Friday.
SURPRISING FACT
Bannon held a press conference outside of the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, and was joined by hard-right House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and a small group of supporters, the Associated Press reported.
TOPLINE
Steve Bannon, high-profile conservative podcast host and ally of former President Donald Trump, reported to a Connecticut prison Monday to serve his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee.
KEY FACTS
Bannon held a press conference outside of the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, on Monday where he spoke to supporters and members of the media and said he was “proud to go to prison.”
“If this is what it takes to stand up to tyranny … to stand up to the Garland corrupt criminal DOJ … to stand up to Nancy Pelosi … to stand up to Joe Biden, I’m proud to do it,” he said, NBC News reported.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine in October 2022 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for not turning over records and not testifying before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
He tried to delay his sentence through legal challenges over the last two years—arguing he was protected from the House subpoena by executive privilege and because his attorney advised him not to comply—but his last appeal requesting the Supreme Court pause his sentence was denied Friday.e
SURPRISING FACT
Bannon held a press conference outside of the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, and was joined by hard-right House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and a small group of supporters, the Associated Press reported.
KEY BACKGROUND
Bannon served as the first-ever White House chief strategist in the Trump White House after he was elected in 2016—though he lasted less than eight months in the role—and before that was the chair of right-wing news outlet Breitbart News. He has hosted his podcast, “War Room,” since 2019, on which he discusses far-right topics, including false information about how the 2020 election was stolen and other political conspiracy theories. Bannon’s podcast has regularly been ranked a top podcast, and in 2023 a study by the Brookings Institution found the show “shared the most unsubstantiated or false claims” of nearly 80 prominent political podcasts. In 2020, he was a vocal supporter of Trump’s claims that the election had been rigged and stolen, the theory that ultimately prompted the Jan. 6 riot in Washington, D.C. The House subcommittee investigating the riot subpoenaed Bannon early on as it was believed that Bannon was a close confidant of Trump, they had phone conversations on Jan. 5., and Bannon encouraged people to go to D.C. on the day of the riot.
TANGENT
Though he’ll be in prison, Bannon’s podcast—a crucial source of information for many Trump supporters—will not stop. It will have a rotating cast of almost 20 guest hosts including Bannon’s daughter, Rudy Giuliani’s son and the niece of Osama bin Laden, according to The New York Times, who will continue to push out right-wing information to its listeners. Bannon told the Times he expects his absence won’t be a huge loss to the show, rather that the podcast will “only get bigger and more powerful” while he’s in prison.
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