Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Federal prosecutors on Friday recommended that longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon receive a six-month prison sentence for defying the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In a court filing, federal prosecutors said Bannon should also pay a $200,000 fine for his “sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress.”
A jury convicted Bannon in July on a pair of contempt of Congress charges stemming from his refusual to sit for questioning or turn over records to the House January 6 committee. The conviction, coming after only a few hours of deliberation, handed the Justice Department a decisive victory in a high-profile, politically charged trial against the onetime White House chief strategist for former President Donald Trump.
The Justice Department pursued charges against Bannon following a referral from the House recommending a prosecution against the former Trump advisor. After that initial referral, the House went on to hold three other former Trump White House advisors — Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Peter Navarro — in contempt.
But, of those three, the Justice Department only brought charges against Navarro, who is set to stand trial in November.
Bannon declined to testify in his own defense or call any witnesses. But he emerged from the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, after each day of his trial to rail against the House January 6 panel.
“I only have one disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee — the J6 committee — didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify in open court,” Bannon said outside court in July.
On the day of his guilty verdict, Bannon pledged to appeal, declaring that he had lost the “battle” but not the “war.” His defense team is expected to formally challenge the criminal conviction to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit following his sentencing on October 21.
The Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation came a day after the House January 6 committee held its ninth — and likely final — public hearing to air the findings of its more than year-long investigation. The hearing featured an audio recording of Bannon predicting just days before the 2020 election that, “If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.”
“If Trump is losing by 10 or 11 at night, it’s going to be even crazier … He’s going to sit right there and say, ‘They stole it. I’m directing the attorney general to shut down all ballot places in all 50 states,'” Bannon told associates on October 31, 2020.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said the recording was evidence that Bannon had “advance knowledge” of Trump’s intent to falsely declare victory on election night.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairperson of the House January 6 committee, identified Bannon as among those who had “gone to enormous lengths to avoid testifying about their dealings with Donald Trump.”
“Steve Bannon has been tried and convicted by a jury of his peers for contempt of Congress,” she added. “He is scheduled to be sentenced for this crime later this month.”
At the end of the hearing, the House January 6 committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump to testify.