Steven Bannon reports to prison for four-month sentence after morning of podcasting
Steve Bannon is going to prison.
The far-right media strategist and Donald Trump’s former White House adviser was ordered to report to federal prison authorities on July 1 after he was convicted of contempt of Congress.
He arrived at FCI Danbury in Connecticut on Monday but not before broadcasting live on Real America’s Voice as part of his War Room podcast.
In a makeshift studio near the prison, Bannon lauded the success of the far-right nationalist party National Rally in the first round of the French parliamentary elections. Comparing the results to the 2016 Brexit vote, Bannon said the success of the French far-right was a precursor to what he expects to be a victory for former President Donald Trump in November.
He also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “bad 72 hours” with President Joe Biden’s dismal debate performance and the first-round results in the French election. Bannon also celebrated the polling prowess of Nigel Farage’s Reform U.K. party ahead of the British election on 4 July.
The former Trump advisor spoke to supporters, including Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had gathered outside the prison on Monday.
Outside the prison in Danbury, Bannon said: “I'm a political prisoner of Nancy Pelosi. I'm a political prisoner of Merrick Garland. I'm a political prisoner of Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden establishment.”
He added: “I am proud to go to prison ... This is what it takes to stand up to tyranny and this is what it takes to stand up to the Garland corrupt criminal DOJ ... this what it takes to stand up to Nancy Pelosi. This is what it takes to stand up to Joe Biden ... I'm proud to do it.”
Bannon spoke outside the prison on Monday as protesters chanted “traitor” as they attempted to interrupt the former Trump advisor.
On Friday, while his Republican allies tried to undermine his conviction, Bannon failed to convince the Supreme Court to let him stay out of jail while he appealed.
After losing his last-ditch request, Bannon – the one-time Breitbart executive, architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, and go-to broadcaster for a Trump-aligned nationalist movement and its campaign of political retribution – has been transferred to a federal prison facility, where he will begin a four-month sentence.
Bannon was found in contempt of Congress after defying subpoenas to give evidence to the House select committee investigating January 6.
His prison sentence mirrors the one handed down to former Trump aide Peter Navarro, who became the first Trumpworld figure to go to jail in connection with the Capitol attack.
Navarro had similarly refused to comply with a subpoena from the congressional committee that investigated January 6 and the responses from Trump and his allies.
Bannon was initially sentenced in October 2022, but it was put on hold pending his appeal.
A man holds a sign that reads ‘Lock Them Up’ as Attorney Matthew Evan Corcoran (L) and Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, depart federal court on June 6, 2024 in Washington, DC (Getty Images)
That conviction was upheld in May, and a federal judge who ordered him to prison earlier this month agreed with prosecutors who argued that there was “no legal basis” to let him avoid it.
Several House Republicans – who have tried to rewrite the narrative of the Capitol attack and undermine the convictions of hundreds of people in connection with the assault – pressed federal courts to intervene.
At least one House Republican filed a brief directly to the Supreme Court, claiming that the House select committee’s “entire process” was “tainted and must be dismissed as a matter of law.”
Another group of House Republicans introduced a resolution to try to rescind Bannon’s subpoena and his contempt of Congress recommendation.
“This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump,” Bannon told reporters outside a federal courthouse in Washington on June 6.
“Not only are we winning, we are going to prevail,” he said. “There’s not a prison built or jail built that will shut me up.”
Speaking to ABC News on Friday, Bannon said, “I’m a political prisoner,” but he added that “it won’t change me.”
He added: “It will not suppress my voice. My voice will not be suppressed when I’m there.”
Bannon told the network that he doesn’t regret defying the subpoena from Congress.
“If it took me going to prison to finally get the House to start to move, to start to delegitimize the illegitimate J6 committee ... my going to prison is worth it,” he said.
Bannon will now join half a dozen Trump allies who have served time for obstruction, campaign finance violations, fraud, and other charges surrounding the former president’s 2016 campaign, his real estate empire, and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In 2020, Bannon and three others were arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection with a fundraising campaign to build a US-Mexico border wall. Then-President Trump later pardoned Bannon, sparing him a federal trial.
But Bannon faces similar fraud charges connected to the “We Build the Wall” scheme in New York, where he is scheduled to go on trial this September.
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