Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former adviser and right-hand man, could go to prison; this would be the penalty that he would pay

Bannon had been convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress.

The United States Department of Justice asked a judge to sentence Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, to six months in prison for refusing to testify in the legislative investigation into the attack on the Capitol, seat of Congress, on January 6, 2021. Bannon, political strategist and defender of the former Republican president (2017-2021), “has followed a strategy of bad faith, defiance and contempt,” said the Department of Justice.

Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's former adviser and right-hand man, could go to prison; this would be the penalty that he would pay

According to the Department, Bannon, 68, should be sentenced to six months in prison and fined $200,000 for having tried to delay the judicial process by implying that he would be willing to cooperate.

The case “deals with broader issues, important to all Americans,” replied his lawyers who want him to wait for an eventual trial on appeal for the application of any sentence to his client, which in his opinion should be: probation or house arrest.

The former adviser had been convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify in the case. The investigation by a special committee of the House of Representatives (Lower) showed that Bannon was aware in advance of the plan by Trump supporters to attack the Capitol in January 2021 in order to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from being elected. confirmed as president.

Additionally, he advocated that Congress prevent Biden, who defeated Trump in the November 2020 election, from becoming president.

“The rioters who invaded the Capitol on January 6 not only attacked a building, but they attacked the Rule of Law on which this country was built and through which it endures” , justified the Department. Five people were killed in the violent incidents at the Capitol, including a police officer.

The DOJ’s recommended sentence, the top of the sentence scale, is based on the context of the crime and the defendant’s court history. This will be made public on October 21, but can be appealed.

Steve Bannon is considered one of the architects of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 and even after being expelled from the White House in August 2017, he kept in touch with the then president, with whom he spoke the day before the attack on the headquarters of the Congress. He currently runs a conservative political commentary website, Bannon’s War Room.

The US House of Representatives committee of inquiry into the January 2021 Capitol storming announced Thursday its decision to summon Donald Trump. The commission is approaching its expiration date. Its useful life is, in effect, linked to the current Congress, which will be largely renewed after the parliamentary elections on November 8.

If the Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats, they intend to dissolve the panel in January 2023.