Politics- The House referred Steve Bannon for prosecution last year after he defied the January 6 committee.
- Bannon argued ahead of sentencing that any jail term should be "suspended" pending his appeal.
A federal judge on Friday sentenced Steve Bannon to four months in prison but allowed the Trump ally to remain free while he appeals his criminal conviction on charges he defied the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, handed down the sentence during a hearing in a Washington, DC, federal court, where a jury found Bannon guilty in July on a pair of contempt of Congress charges. Nichols said that, if Bannon files a "timely appeal," he will issue an order suspending the prison sentence as he presses a legal challenge to his conviction.
Nichols also ordered Bannon to pay a $6,500 fine.
Handing down the sentence, Nichols said the January 6 attack on the Capitol was "undeniably serious," and the House "thus has every reason" to investigate it. Nichols said Bannon exhibited a lack of respect for the legislative branch in defying the House January 6 committee, even after the removal of purported roadblocks to his testimony.
"Flaunting a Congressional subpoena betrays a lack of respect for the legislative branch which represents the will of the people of the United States," Nichols said. "In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions."
Ahead of Friday's sentencing, federal prosecutors recommended that Nichols sentence Bannon to six months in prison, and order him to pay a $200,000 fine. In a court filing, the prosecutors said Bannon "flouted the Committee's authority and ignored the subpoena's demands."
Bannon's defense lawyers argued that the former Trump advisor should avoid prison time and receive a probation-only sentence. But they urged Nichols to suspend — or put on hold — any sentence while Bannon brings a challenge to his criminal conviction.
Bannon had declined to testify in his own defense or call any witnesses during his trial. But after each day of the proceeding, he emerged from federal court to rail against the Justice Department and the House January 6 committee.
On Friday, Bannon declined an opportunity to address the judge before his sentencing.
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.
The jury found Bannon guilty after only a few hours of deliberations. That day, Bannon declared that he had lost the "battle" but not the "war," signaling that he would challenge his conviction before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
In the months leading to the trial, Nichols made a series of rulings that severely limited Bannon's potential arguments. For instance, Nichols barred Bannon's defense team from arguing that executive privilege excused his refusal to sit for questioning or turn over records subpoenaed by the House January 6 committee.
Citing decades-old DC Circuit precedent, Nichols also prevented Bannon from arguing that he was following the advice of his lawyer in declining to comply with the House January 6 panel's subpoena. But Nichols appeared to make the ruling reluctantly, emphasizing that he was bound by a 1961 appeals court ruling that took the so-called "advice of counsel" defense off the table in contempt of Congress cases.
After months of refusing the House panel's demands, Bannon attempted an about-face on the eve of trial and told the committee that Trump had waived executive privilege and freed him to cooperate with the panel's investigation.
Prosecutors cited the last-ditch offer in their sentencing recommendation this week, saying it "proved a hollow gesture."
"When he realized that his eleventh-hour stunt would not prevent his trial, the Defendant's cooperative spirit vanished," prosecutors said. "Despite the removal of the only purported barrier to his compliance, to this day the Defendant has not produced a single document to the Committee or appeared for testimony."
In their court filings, prosecutors revealed new details about the Bannon legal team's dealings with the House committee ahead of his trial.
Just days before the trial was set to begin, Bannon's defense lawyer Evan Corcoran, contacted the House January 6 committee to push the congressional panel to recommend that the Justice Department drop charges in exchange for Bannon's cooperation. The House committee's top investigator, Timothy Heaphy, took contemporaneous notes of the call and had a staff member join as a potential witness.
Later, while being interviewed by an FBI agent, Heaphy "described the overall 'vibe' of his conversation with Corcoran as defense counsel's attempt to solicit the Select Committee's assistance in their effort to delay Bannon's criminal trial and obtain a dismissal of the contempt of Congress charges pending against him," according to a summary of the October 7 interview.