Steve Bannon, consultant to previous President Donald Trump, talks to the media as a protester backs up him, beyond the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch|Getty Images
Federal district attorneys suggested Monday that previous Trump White House assistant Steve Bannon deal with 6 months in prison and a $200,000 fine for defying a subpoena from the congressional probe of theJan 6 Capitol riot.
Bannon “has pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” from “the moment” he was served the subpoena, the Justice Department composed in a sentencing memorandum in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The suggested prison term can be found in on top end of the federal sentencing standards. Prosecutors stated Bannon was worthy of the longer sentence “because a person could have shown no greater contempt than the Defendant did in his defiance of the Committee’s subpoena.” They likewise suggested the optimum fine.
Bannon is set to be sentenced Friday, one year to the day because the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for declining to abide by a House choose committee’s subpoena for files and statement. Bannon was prosecuted in November on 2 criminal counts and founded guilty after a federal trial in July.
“The factual record in this case is replete with proof that with respect to the Committee’s subpoena, the Defendant consistently acted in bad faith and with the purpose of frustrating the Committee’s work,” the district attorneys composed in their sentencing memo.
The choose committee looked for Bannon’s statement as part of its examination into theJan 6, 2021, riot, when a violent mob of previous President Donald Trump’s advocates stormed the U.S.Capitol Trump and a number of his allies, consisting of Bannon, wrongly declared for months prior to the riot that the election was rigged for President Joe Biden.
Bannon’s attorneys validated his rejection to abide by the subpoena by pointing out Trump’s claims of executive benefit, which can permit a president to avoid the release of particular White House files or interactions. Prosecutors turned down that argument. In their most current court filing, they explained it as simply “a cover for his contempt.”
They likewise slammed Bannon, who hosts a conservative online talk program, for disparaging members of the committee in the media. Prosecutors stated his rhetorical attacks “confirm his bad faith.”
Bannon is likewise declining to supply monetary details to probation officers, rather informing them that he would choose to pay the optimum fine, the district attorneys declared.
“So be it,” they composed.
Bannon’s rejection to abide by the probe was “aimed at undermining the Committee’s efforts to investigate an historic attack on government,” the district attorneys composed.
“The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6 did not just attack a building—they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures. By flouting the Select Committee’s subpoena and its authority, the Defendant exacerbated that assault,” their memo stated.
“Respect for the rule of law is essential to the functioning of the United States government and to preserving the freedom and good order this country has enjoyed for more than two centuries,” district attorneys composed. “The Defendant’s bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt deserves severe punishment.”
