WASHINGTON -- Steve Bannon, conservative podcaster and longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump, was sentenced Friday to serve four months in prison after defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon is set to become the first person incarcerated for defying a congressional subpoena in more than half a century under a statute that is rarely prosecuted. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols allowed Bannon to stay free pending appeal.
Bannon was convicted at trial in July on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to the Jan. 6 committee's requests for testimony or documents. Both misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail.
Nichols handed down the sentence after saying the law was clear that contempt of Congress is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of at least one month behind bars.
Bannon's lawyers argued the judge could've sentenced him to probation instead.
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."
The judge imposed a $6,500 fine.
"In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions," Nichols said before he imposed the sentence. "Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes."
The committee had wanted to ask Bannon about his role in efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence and Republican lawmakers into refusing to affirm the 2020 election results, culminating in the assault on the Capitol.
Lawmakers in their subpoena noted that Bannon was involved in Trump supporters' strategy meetings the day before the riot and predicted that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow."
According to the book "Peril," by Washington Post writers Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Bannon also told Trump a few days earlier that they were "going to bury Biden on January 6th."
Prosecutors argued Bannon, 68, deserved the longer sentence because he had pursued a "bad faith strategy" and his public statements disparaging the committee itself made it clear he wanted to undermine its effort to get to the bottom of the violent attack and keep anything like it from happening again.
"He chose to hide behind fabricated claims of executive privilege and advice of counsel to thumb his nose at Congress," said prosecutor J.P. Cooney.
"Your honor, the defendant is not above the law and that is exactly what makes this case important," Cooney said. "It must be made clear to the public, to the citizens, that no one is above the law."
The defense, meanwhile, said he wasn't acting in bad faith, but trying to avoid running afoul of executive privilege objections Trump had raised when Bannon was first served with a committee subpoena last year. The one-time presidential adviser said he wanted to have a Trump lawyer in the room, but the committee wouldn't allow it.
In imposing the sentence, the judge noted that Bannon did have a lawyer, and while his advice might have been "overly aggressive" he did appear to be following it.
"Mr. Bannon did not completely ignore the fact he had received the subpoena nor did he fail to engage with the committee at all," Nichols said.
Before the judge handed down the sentence, Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, gave an impassioned argument railing against the committee and saying Bannon had simply done as his lawyer told him to do under Trump's executive privilege objections.
Executive privilege shields close advisers to the president from subpoenas related to their White House work. But Bannon left the administration in mid-2017 and was acting as a private citizen on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors at trial and in their sentencing papers provided communications showing that a lawyer for the former president never told Bannon's legal team that he should refuse to appear or that Trump was invoking executive privilege over any specific document.
Bannon has also argued that he had offered to testify after Trump waived executive privilege. But that was after the contempt charges were filed. Prosecutors say he would only agree to give the deposition if the case was dropped.
"Mr. Bannon should make no apology. No American should make any apology for the manner in which Mr. Bannon proceeded in this case," Schoen said.
Schoen also defended Bannon's public remarks about the committee.
"Telling the truth about this committee or speaking one's mind about this committee, it's not only acceptable in this country, it's an obligation if one believes it to be true," Schoen said.
Bannon did not speak during the hearing, saying only, "My lawyers have spoken for me, your honor."
DIVISIVE FIGURE
The chaotic scene outside U.S. District Court was emblematic of the rancor Bannon has evoked since becoming a fixture of Trump's political circle seven years ago.
After leaving court, he stood before the cameras to declare that the idea he saw himself as above the law was "an absolute and total lie" -- as protesters repeatedly bellowed, "Traitor!" through bullhorns a few feet away.
As the throng pressed Bannon against his black SUV, he briefly lingered inside the half-open rear door, taking in the spectacle with a wry smile before taking off.
Bannon, a rapid-talking provocateur who has used his daily internet radio show to skewer the government for prosecuting him, approached his sentencing with defiance. He told reporters that he viewed President Joe Biden as "illegitimate" as he entered the court, flanked by his lawyers.
He went on to claim that Democrats would face their "judgment day" in the coming midterm elections and urged all within earshot to oppose the Chinese Communist Party.
Leaving the courthouse after the sentencing, Bannon said he believed Attorney General Merrick Garland would be impeached.
When Biden, for his part, was asked about the sentence as he left the White House he said: "I never have a reaction to Steve Bannon."
Bannon is also facing separate money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges in New York related to the "We Build the Wall" campaign. Bannon, who pleaded innocent, was indicted on nearly identical federal charges in 2020 but pardoned by Trump.
Prosecutors say Bannon falsely promised donors that all money would go to constructing a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, but instead was involved with transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to third-party entities and using them to funnel payments to two other people involved in the scheme.
Bannon is one of six Trump associates to be convicted of federal crimes.
Peter Navarro, the former White House trade adviser, was indicted in June on contempt of Congress charges. He is scheduled to go on trial in Washington next month.
The House committee investigating the Capitol riot stated it wanted Navarro to talk about working with "Bannon and others to ... change the outcome of the November 2020 presidential election."
On Bannon's podcast late last year, Navarro credited the host as being "the hero on January 6," who had the "strategy to go up to Capitol Hill." As in Bannon's case, a federal judge found that Trump never invoked executive privilege to protect Navarro from cooperating with the committee investigation.
More Trump allies are now in legal jeopardy in investigations of both attempts to challenge the 2020 election results and the storage of classified information at Trump's Florida residence.
M. Evan Corcoran, who is representing Bannon, has been counseled by colleagues to hire a criminal defense lawyer because he told the Justice Department that Trump had handed over all classified information at Mar-a-Lago before an FBI raid found more.
Information for this article was contributed by Lindsay Whitehurst and Nathan Ellgren of The Associated Press, by Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner of The Washington Post and by Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer of The New York Times.
Steve Bannon, center, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, convicted of contempt of Congress, arrives at federal court for a sentencing hearing, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. Attorney David Schoen is left. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Steve Bannon, walking center, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, convicted of contempt of Congress, arrives at federal court for a sentencing hearing, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Media gathers around an inflatable rat styled after former President Donald Trump while waiting for the arrival of Steve Bannon, longtime ally of the former president, convicted of contempt of Congress, for a sentencing hearing in-person, at the Federal Courthouse, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Steve Bannon, center, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, convicted of contempt of Congress, arrives at federal court for a sentencing hearing, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Steve Bannon, longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, convicted of contempt of Congress, leaves a sentencing hearing after receiving 4 months in prison from Judge Carl J. Nichols at the federal court in Washington, on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
The sun rises on the Federal Courthouse in Washington, ahead of a sentencing hearing for Steve Bannon, longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, convicted of contempt of Congress, on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Steve Bannon, center, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump and convicted of contempt of Congress, accompanied by his attorneys David Schoen, left, and Evan Corcoran, right, speaks to the media as he leaves the federal courthouse on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. Bannon was sentenced to 4 months behind bars for defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
File - Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, departs federal court, July 22, 2022, in Washington. Bannon is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court, after being convicted of defying a subpoena from the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
Steve Bannon, center, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump and convicted of contempt of Congress, accompanied by his attorneys David Schoen, left, and Evan Corcoran, right, speaks to the media as he leaves the federal courthouse on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Washington. Bannon was sentenced to 4 months behind bars for defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)