A US court has sentenced Steve Bannon, who previously served as an advisor to former US President Donald Trump during his presidency, to four months in prison, for refusing to cooperate with the House investigation into the attack on the Capitol.
The 68-year-old is a face of right-wing populism in the United States, and has announced that he intends to appeal, suspending the execution of the sentence.
Therefore, he was able to leave the court, affirming in front of the cameras “respect for the judge’s decision”, but he did not stop there and touched on politics.
“November 8 will be the day of judging the (Joe) Biden regime… and we know how it goes,” he said, referring to the midterm elections in Congress.
He also spoke about a number of members of the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the events of January 6 and the role of Donald Trump in them, and Steve Bannon expected that they would be “defeated.”
Bannon refused to respond to subpoenas issued by this committee, and was convicted in July of obstructing the investigative powers in Congress.
In response, the prosecution requested a six-month prison sentence, citing his “contempt” and “bad faith” throughout the proceedings. His lawyers requested that he receive a suspended prison sentence or be placed under house arrest.
But Judge Carl Nichols sentenced him to four months in prison and paid a $6,500 fine.
He justified his decision that “respect for Congress is an important component of our constitutional system,” stressing that Steve Bannon has not yet submitted “any document or testified” before the committee.
Steve Bannon is a fierce critic of American institutions, a banker and former director of the far-right news website Breitbart, who was one of the architects of Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election.
After becoming one of the president’s influential advisers, he was removed from the White House in August 2017 following far-right violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But he remained close to Trump and exchanged talks with him on January 5, 2021, on the eve of the attack by Trump supporters on the headquarters of Congress.
To find out the nature of their discussions, the commission called Steve Bannon to testify and provide documents.
But he refused, invoking the right of presidents to keep some conversations secret, which led to charges of “obstructing the investigative powers of Congress.”
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