Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon received his sentence Friday morning following his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol raid.
Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, sentenced Bannon to four months in prison and has been ordered to pay a fine of $6,500.
The judge said that Bannon “has expressed no remorse for his actions” and hasn’t demonstrated that he has any intention of complying with the subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee.
Federal prosecutor J.P. Cooney argued that Bannon is not above the law and should be sentenced and treated like any other citizen, according to ABC News.
“It must be made clear to the public and the grand jury … that no one is above the law,” Cooney said. “He hid behind a fabricated claim of executive privilege, to thumb his nose at Congress.”
“He had an interest in making a public spectacle of the committee’s hearings,” Cooney told the judge, saying that Bannon “has tried to make it about nothing but politics and retribution.”
During Friday’s proceeding’s Bannon attorney David Schoen hit back against the prosecutor’s claim Bannon did not have a legitimate claim of executive privilege when he rejected the committee’s subpoena.
In particular, Schoen went after Trump lawyer Justin Clark, who told DOJ investigators in July that at no point did former President Donald Trump ever invoke executive privilege over Bannon’s testimony.
“You wouldn’t believe a thing he says,” Schoen said of Clark, who also contradicted other claims made by Bannon’s defense team in their case.
Last week, the Justice Department announced it pushing for a more severe sentence for Bannon of at least 6 months. (RELATED: Feds Recommend Jail Time for Bannon)
Bannon’s attorney David Schoen argued that there should not be a 30-day mandatory minimum of jail time for the offense.
Nichols, however, rejected that argument, saying the statute is clear on the point that there is a mandatory minimum of 30 days and a mandatory maximum of 12 months.
In comments to reporters after the ruling Bannon appeared to hint at an appeal in the near future and said, “this thing about I’m above the law is an absolute and total lie.”
It wasn’t long before individuals went to Twitter to
