Trump aide Steve Bannon reports to federal prison for defying House Jan. 6 subpoena
WASHINGTON – Steve Bannon, a former political aide to Donald Trump, reported Monday to federal prison to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I am proud of going to prison today,” Bannon said outside the low-security federal lockup.
Bannon, a podcaster who remains popular with the former president's supporters, was convicted in July 2022 and was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $6,500. He'll be imprisoned in Danbury, Connecticut.
A group of supporters including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joined Bannon for a roadside news conference Monday morning. "What group of pirates is out here today,” he said.
"It's a political war, and it's a political persecution, and it shouldn't be happening" Greene said as cars whizzed past and a small group chanted "Trump won."
Earlier, Bannon told ABC News, "I'm a political prisoner." Incarceration, he said, "won't change me. It will not suppress my voice. My voice will not be suppressed when I'm there."
He was one of two former Trump aides, along with Peter Navarro, who were convicted of defying the committee. Navarro is serving his four-month sentence in a federal prison in Miami. He is expected to be released July 17.
Bannon remained free while he appealed. But the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction on May 10.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday rejected an emergency request to postpone the sentence while Bannon continues to appeal. His lawyer had argued that Bannon will have served his term before the courts reach a final decision.
House Republican leaders voted to contribute a legal argument withdrawing support for the investigative committee when Bannon files his anticipated request for the entire D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review his case, after the rejection by a three-judge panel.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said in a joint statement that the filing would explain why Republicans thought the committee was organized illegitimately when Democrats controlled the House.
Bannon said he was relying on his lawyer's advice not to respond to the subpoena until it was resolved whether the former White House aide was protected by President Donald Trump's claim of executive privilege. That doctrine allows presidents to keep confidential some executive branch communications.
Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, had argued that when his former attorney, Robert Costello, got the subpoena, he received a direction from Trump that the former president was invoking executive privilege.
Costello then advised Bannon not to respond in any way to the subpoena, and the lawyer told the committee Bannon would comply if lawmakers resolved the dispute over executive privilege with Trump.
House lawyers argued that Bannon had thumbed his nose at the committee and ignored the subpoena.
The committee sought to question Bannon, a political strategist for Trump, in part because he told associates from China on Oct. 31, 2020, that Trump would declare victory even if he lost the election and said it would be a “firestorm.”
In a "War Room: Pandemic" podcast Jan. 2, 2021, Bannon said former Vice President Mike Pence “spit the bit,” meaning he was no longer supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which the committee described as amplifying the pressure on Pence.
Bannon called Trump at least twice on Jan. 5, 2021.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump aide Steve Bannon imprisoned for defying House Jan. 6 subpoena
