Trump strategist who appeared to have advance knowledge of events faces a mandatory minimum of 30 days of incarceration. Prosecutors seek 6 months.
Stephen K. Bannon, a right-wing podcaster and longtime adviser to former president Donald Trump, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning for defying a subpoena to testify before Congress about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days incarceration. If he is sent to prison, he would be the first person ordered to serve time behind bars for defying a congressional subpoena in over than half a century under a statute that is rarely prosecuted.
Bannon was convicted at trial in July for refusing to respond to requests for testimony or documents to the committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riot and the preceding events. Both misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail. But Bannon has said he plans to appeal his conviction because of rulings by U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols that said Bannon could not argue at trial that he relied on his lawyer’s advice or believed his cooperation was barred by Trump’s claim of executive privilege.
Prosecutors asked for six months in jail and the maximum $200,000 fine, saying in a court filing that Bannon showed “a total disregard for government processes and the law” in ignoring the congressional subpoena while smearing the House investigation and the justice system with “rhetoric that risks inspiring violence.
