Steve Bannon’s sentence: How long will he be in jail?
The former Trump special advisor was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress and begins his sentence today, July 1, 2024.
A former Top aide to the Trump White House, Steve Bannon, was sentenced to four months in jail in October, 2022 after being found guilty of contempt of Congress. Bannon refused to give evidence before the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
But presiding Judge Carl Nichols ruled that Bannon should remain a free man until he has exhausted his right to appeal. Speaking outside the court immediately after the sentence was announced, Bannon reiterated his intention to fight the verdict.
Bannon said: “Today was my judgment day by the judge. And we’ll have a very vigorous appeals process. I’ve got a great legal team, and there’ll be multiple areas of appeal.”
Bannon has entered prison today.
The nine-person House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol was made up of seven Democrats.
How long will he be in jail?
Aside from playing for time in the hope that the Republican’s assume control in Congress, it is unclear what avenue Bannon’s legal team can pursue at this stage. But it appears that he will have to serve out his entire term of four months.
He repeatedly refused to appear before the committee after being subpoenaed last year and the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in October 2021. At the time Bannon argued that he was unable to testify until the courts had resolved an issues related to former President Trump’s supposed invocation of executive privilege.
But that argument fell down in trial when the prosecution produced a letter from Trump’s lawyer, Justin Clark, who confirmed to Justice Department investigators in July that Trump had never attempted to use executive privilege in relation to Bannon’s testimony.
This provoked a blunt response at trial from Bannon’s lawyer David Schoen. He dismissed the former President attorney as “nothing but a thug” and claimed “he has lied to me personally.”
Throughout the process Bannon and his legal team claimed that the right-wing agitator had never intended to unduly ignore the subpoena. This remained the line, despite the fact the Clark had repeatedly told Bannon that he was not blocked from testifying by executive privilege.
Shortly before Bannon’s trial was set to begin in July, his team communicated that he would be willing to cooperate after all. However prosecutors have dismissed the move as “a hollow gesture” which spoke of Bannon’s desperation to avoid trial.