Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison Friday for his defiance of a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The one-time White House strategist was subpoenaed by the panel in September of last year after he failed to provide either the required documents or testimony as he railed against the committee.
Bannon claimed that he was unable to comply with the committee’s subpoena due to executive privilege. However, the panel sought to speak to Bannon about events that occurred well after his short stint in the White House.
Federal district court Judge Carl Nichols ruled that Bannon would also pay a fine of $6,500 alongside his four month sentence, allowing Bannon to serve jailtime for each contempt of Congress charge concurrently.
At the outset of the hearing Nichols said Bannon had shown “no remorse for his actions” and “has yet to demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.”
But the judge also agreed to stay his ruling while Bannon appeals his guilty verdict.
A Justice Department prosecutor argued that Bannon deserved a severe penalty for his wholesale resistance to the committee’s subpoena, noting that “he never lifted a finger to find a responsive document” or appear in person to assert any potential privileges.
“The importance of this case has everything to do with defendant’s obligations as a citizen of the United States,” assistant U.S. attorney Joseph Cooney told the court.
“No one, regardless of their means, their station, the influence of their friends or their patrons, is above the law.”
Bannon’s attorneys – David Schoen, one of President Trump’s impeachment attorneys, and Evan Corcoran, who is currently representing the former president in the Mar-a-Lago case – argued Bannon had little choice but inaction when faced with the committee subpoena.
His hands were tied by Trump’s claim of executive privilege, they argued, with Schoen saying it was the “only lawful course he could take consistent with the Constitution and his obligation.”
A jury largely rejected that argument when it found Bannon guilty on both counts of contempt of Congress.
