President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is calling for former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to receive a six-month jail sentence and a $200,000 fine for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The Department’s recommendation comes ahead of Bannon’s sentencing on Friday.
A jury found Bannon guilty in July on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and provide documents to the select committee. Bannon claimed executive privilege barred him from testifying before the committee despite its interest in actions he took well after his short stint in the White House.
“His effort to exact a quid pro quo with the Committee to persuade the Department of Justice to delay trial and dismiss the charges against him should leave no doubt that his contempt was deliberate and continues to this day,” the prosecutors argued according to Politico.
In their sentencing memo, the DOJ attorneys revealed newly disclosed contacts between Bannon’s lawyer, Evan Corcoran, and the select committee in which he pushed the panel to recommend dropping the charges in exchange for Bannon’s cooperation.
One attached exhibit showed that an FBI agent had interviewed the select committee’s top investigator Tim Heaphy on Oct. 7 about his interaction with Corcoran, who once worked with Heaphy at the Justice Department. Corcoran contacted him just days before Bannon’s July trial to ask about joining forces to dismiss the case, Heaphy recalled. Heaphy, who took contemporaneous notes of the call and had another staffer join as a potential witness, said “the overall ‘vibe’ of his conversation” was an “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 the FBI agent’s summary of the interview.
Prosecutors also cited Bannon’s public comments about the select committee throughout his criminal proceedings, they noted that he routinely used his “War Room” podcast and public appearances at the courthouse to deride the investigation.
“Through his public platforms, the Defendant has used hyperbolic and sometimes violent rhetoric to disparage the Committee’s investigation, personally attack the Committee’s members, and ridicule the criminal justice system,” prosecutors J.P. Cooney and Amanda Vaughn wrote. “The Defendant’s statements prove that his contempt was not aimed at protecting executive privilege or the Constitution, rather it was aimed at undermining the Committee’s efforts to investigate an historic attack on government.”
A $200,000 fine is the maximum for the two counts of contempt of Congress — one for refusing to testify, and the other for refusing to produce any of the documents requested in the deposition.
Bannon is one of just two former White House officials whom the DOJ accepted a criminal contempt referral from Congress. It chose not to pursue charges against the former chief of staff Mark Meadows or White House official Dan Scavino but has charged White House aide Peter Navarro.
Wants House arrest vs jail time
F___ them Steve. In A month, comrade chairman Xi den will be powerless.
The only two people who should be in jail are Pelosi & Bowers. Period. Filthy, slimy & lying scumbags.
There are more than a hundred million Americans who hold the US Congress in contempt. Their approval rate is consistently in the teens. It’s something almost all of us can agree on. Steve’s just like us.
That’s a big 10-4 with Biden and company being a bunch of corrupt scumbags. They’ve weaponized their departments against Republicans in general they don’t give a rat’s ass about the constitution and I can’t believe people would vote for these pieces of excrement!
Where’s the DOJ’S and so called “Committee”…that operated outside the Constitutional framework when it comes to investigating real, genuine threats against out Homeland? Does anyone have to look very far to see the mental deterioration of our so-called president who compromised any allegiance to America by allowing some cabal to control his decisions is obvious as is his involvement and his family’s in business dealings that compromise our country. Read “Red Handed” and more…Because of Biden, China has become incredibly powerful. Read Biden’s 2015 toast to China’s equivalency with the US at special celebration in the State Department documents. Yet, our sooo enlightened college folks overrode American voting conviction in our 2022 election taken in by an empty promise from our so-called commander in chief re wiping out their debt & passing it on to American taxpayers who’re under water from this deluded man’s trillions of dollars of taxes his Dems got through Congress…..they should all run for the hills, not re-election! I believe many in Congress have no loyalty to the Constitution, the DOJ is weaponized as is Merrick Garland..Homeland Security. This president is allowed to destroy our country…and he’s doing it as long as he can!