Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon was sentenced to 4 months and fined $6,500 on Friday after beforehand being discovered responsible of appearing in contempt of Congress in a authorized saga that started greater than a yr in the past.
Prosecutors had requested the federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., to ship Bannon to jail for six months and fantastic him $200,000.
U.S. District Decide Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, famous Bannon’s lack of regret earlier than handing down his ruling, in keeping with NBC Information. Nichols reportedly advised the courtroom that others have to be deterred from equally flouting congressional authority.
The sentence, nonetheless, might be stayed to permit Bannon’s group to attraction.
Exterior the courthouse, Bannon decried the “illegitimate regime” of President Joe Biden.
“Their judgment day is on 8 November, when the Biden administration ends,” he told reporters gathered exterior the constructing, which doesn’t enable cameras inside.
Bannon declined to make a press release in courtroom on his personal behalf.
He had been known as to show over communications and different documentation to the Home choose committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, and to seem earlier than the panel for a deposition. He refused, and the Home voted to carry him in contempt of Congress late final yr.
In July, a federal jury discovered him responsible on two contempt expenses, one for the paperwork and one for the testimony.
Whereas Bannon’s tenure as an official adviser to Trump was short-lived ― he lasted lower than a yr within the White Home in 2017 ― he was talking with Trump because the president clung to energy within the wake of dropping the 2020 election.
Bannon’s was among the many earlier subpoenas issued by the Jan. 6 committee, on Sept. 23, 2021. He argued that he couldn’t cooperate as a result of Trump was trying to make use of govt authority to defend the paperwork, despite the fact that he’s not in workplace and the present administration has declined to invoke govt authority on Trump’s behalf.
The committee has now spoken to greater than 1,000 witnesses.
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