The Justice Department wants Steve Bannon, top advisor and longtime ally to former President Donald Trump, sentenced to six months in prison and fined $200,000 after he was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, a new court filing states.
Bannon was found guilty in July of defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. He is expected to be sentenced Friday, Oct. 21.
Bannon’s side requested the court sentence him to probation and home confinement if necessary, but not before the case can be appealed.
In their filing, U.S. prosecutors said Bannon “has not produced a single document … or appeared for testimony” and has “pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” from the moment he was subpoenaed in September 2021.
In what they call a “quid pro quo attempt,” prosecutors said Bannon claimed the documents were protected by executive privilege, reversed that position shortly before the trial, but continued stonewalling once “he realized that his eleventh-hour stunt would not prevent his trial.”
Bannon’s side argues that he followed “his good-faith reliance on his lawyer’s advice” in claiming the documents sought were protected by executive privilege, according to their own filing.
Bannon was barred by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols from making arguments about executive privilege or his lawyer’s advice in front of the jury, according to Reuters.
A co-founder of Breitbart News, Bannon was a key advisor to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and served seven months as Trump’s chief strategist.
Bannon recently pleaded not guilty to money laundering and conspiracy charges in a separate case, according to Reuters.
The case alleges that he helped divert hundreds of thousands of dollars to the chief executive of a fundraising drive to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
