[ad_1]
The arc of Steve Bannon’s career has taken him from the US Navy to Hollywood to the Donald Trump White House – followed by four months in a federal pen unless he can win on appeal.
Bannon’s rollercoaster saga in the public eye took another unfortunate turn Friday when a federal judge sentenced him to four months in prison following his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.
Things could have gone worse for the former chief White House strategist and defiant podcaster, with Judge Carl Nichols imposing a modest $6,500 fine for criminal contempt for his defiance of a congressional subpoena from the House January 6th committee.
Bannon will have no trouble paying the fine, and could have had to shell out much more after refusing to participate in the committee process and declining to speak on his own behalf.
Former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for defying a congressional subpoena. His lawyer David Schoen says he has a ‘bulletproof’ appeal coming
And he gets to remain out of prison – for now – after Judge Nichols allowed him to remain free pending an appeal, which his lawyer David Schoen claimed was ‘bulletproof.’
The sentence came as Bannon is still facing trial in New York based on corruption charges related to the ‘We Build the Wall’ scheme, after Donald Trump issued a preemptive pardon of federal charges in his final hours as president.
Bannon was convicted in June of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
A jury found Bannon, 68, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for refusing to provide testimony or documents to the House of Representatives select committee.
He faced up to two years in federal prison. But prosecutors had sought only six months. His lawyers countered with probation and asked for home confinement.
Each count carries a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $100,000.
The verdict by the jury of eight men and four women, after less than three hours of deliberations, marked the first successful prosecution for contempt of Congress since 1974, when a judge found G. Gordon Liddy, a conspirator in the Watergate scandal that prompted President Richard Nixon’s resignation, guilty.
His conviction ends a chapter for a stunning rise and fall for a man who seemingly came out of nowhere to lead Donald Trump to the presidency.
The famed flame-thrower was Trump’s campaign manager in the final stages of the 2016 election, having risen from his role at Breitbart to become one of the most influential right-wing voices.
Bannon joined Trump in the White House but fell out with him in spectacular fashion and turned on Trump and, in particular, his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was convicted Friday of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot
A jury found Bannon, 68, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for refusing to provide testimony or documents to the House of Representatives select committee
Steve Bannon, pictured with Trump in the White House in January 2017, was convicted Friday of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot
Bannon is pictured walking out of court in New York on August 20 after his arrest
He was forced out and roamed Europe trying to set up a right-wing political movement across the continent, before returning to the US where in August he was arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud Trump supporters who donated to a crowdfunded effort to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The former investment banker was arrested on August 20, 2020 on a $28 million yacht, owned by a fugitive Chinese billionaire.
Bannon was the campaign CEO for its last 88 days after the ousting of Paul Manafort – who became a convicted felon himself.
He was pardoned by Trump on the eve of the president’s departure from the White House as a remarkable reward for loyally insisting that the election was stolen.
The Virginia-born strategist, who worked alongside Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager, encouraged Trump to go after his primary opponents, clash with Republican Party elites, and launch tirades against China and global trade.
Bannon was seen as being a driving force behind attempts to frame a populist appeal to ‘forgotten’ Americans.
He had informally advised Trump before jumping on board from the conservative Breitbart website, which was backed by billionaire Rebekah Mercer.
He became, in the White House, Trump’s Chief Strategist, with a West Wing office close to the Oval Office.
Bannon clashed with many within the White House – in particular Jared Kushner (right)
Bannon dismissed Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, as ‘globalists’ and openly mocked them
Bannon for a while had the ear of the president, but made the fatal mistake of clashing with the other power center: Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who Bannon sneeringly named Javanka.
He fought internecine battles and sometimes forged unexpected partnerships with Trump’s first chief of staff, Reince Preibus, during chaotic early days of the Trump administration.
But after it was revealed he had been cooperating with Michael Wolff in his scathing Trump takedown, Fire and Fury, the president fired him, in August 2017.
Not only had Bannon consented to on-record interviews, he took aim at Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr.
He called the infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting about dirt on Hillary Clinton that was attended by Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Kushner ‘treasonous’ and ‘unpatriotic.’
He predicted of authorities: ‘They’re going to crack Don Jr. like an egg.’
Wolff reported in 2018 that Bannon told investigators: ‘Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s**t, and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.’
Bannon, pictured in the White House in January 2017, made many enemies within the team
Trump in characteristic fashion distanced himself with Bannon after throwing him overboard.
‘Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency’ Trump said at the time.
‘When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.’
After he was out at the White House, Bannon was subpoenaed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators who were probing Trump campaign contacts with Russians.
He reportedly met with them for 20 hours, speaking on multiple occasions, and his assessments are reflected in the Mueller report.
The former Goldman Sachs banker is worth an estimated $48 million, according to White House financial disclosures made in 2017.
He has enjoyed an eye-catchingly varied career, including a stint during the early 1990s as boss of the Biosphere 2 experiment, which locked scientists way in a greenhouse for two years to see if they could become self-sufficient.
He lost his lucrative backing from Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, after the publication of Fire and Fury. He also lost his job at Breitbart, which pushed him to seek new horizons.
From his base at an 800-year-old monastery outside of Rome, Bannon travelled to Paris, telling the far-right Front National that ‘history is on our side and will bring us victory’.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks as he departs after he was found guilty during his trial on contempt of Congress charges for his refusal to cooperate with the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack
Bannon for a while had the ear of the president, but made the fatal mistake of clashing with the other power center: Kushner and Ivanka Trump, who Bannon sneeringly named Javanka
Italy was unimpressed, and last year, Italy’s Culture Ministry, which owns the mountaintop monastery, withdrew a 19-year lease, citing violations of contractual obligations.
In May that ruling was overturned, allowing work on the Dignitatis Humanae Institute think-tank to continue.
More recently Bannon has retained some of his power as an influential Trump world voice, appearing frequently on television and running a podcast where Trump aides are guests. There have been persistent reports of regular contact between the two men, but no known in person meetings.
Trump – who fell out with the former Breitbart editor in spectacular fashion, dismissing him in August 2017 as washed-up ‘Sloppy Steve’ – tried to distance himself from Bannon, saying: ‘I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time.’
Bannon was the eighth close Trump associate to be arrested or convicted of a crime, a list that also includes former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Bannon helped make confronting China a centerpiece of Trump’s 2016 campaign, a posture the president has continued into his tenure in office.
Another key tenet of that election was building a wall on the southern border that Trump said Mexico – not the U.S. government – would pay for.
Bannon began scheming to start a new U.S. political party that he planned to call the ‘National Union Party’ – the temporary name Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party had adopted in 1864 to attract War Democrats and Unionists – imagining that he could unite disaffected populists on both ends of the political spectrum and make his own run at the White House.
[ad_2]
Source link
