WATCH: Steve Bannon Arrives at Sentencing to Shouts of ‘Fascist!’ and ‘Traitor!’
Steve Bannon arrived at his court sentencing on Friday morning to protesters yelling “fascist” and “traitor” as he walked by to face the music.
The former Trump administration official, who appeared to be wearing three shirts, seemed relatively unfazed by the repeated calls as he waved to his critics before briefly stopping to talk to gathered press, mentioning the midterm elections as a “judgment day.”
One unidentified person walking behind Bannon held a sign reading, “STOP HATING EACH OTHER BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE.”
Bannon’s legal troubles stem from defying a subpoena from the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Bannon’s defense has argued for probation for Bannon, who was once pardoned by ally Donald Trump on fraud-related charges, but the conservative pundit will be facing a some actual time behind bars. His charges call for a minimum of one month incarceration, Judge Carl Nichols declared.
NBC News: In a setback for Steve Bannon, Judge Carl Nichols said that the law is clear that contempt of Congress is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of at least one month of incarceration.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 21, 2022
The Justice Department recommended six months jail time and a $200,000 fine for Bannon for contempt of Congress.
“For his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, the Defendant should be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment — the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines’ range — and fined $200,000 — based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office’s routine pre-sentencing financial investigation,” a filing from prosecutors reportedly reads. “The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6 did not just attack a building – they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures. By flouting the Select Committee’s subpoena and its authority, the Defendant exacerbated that assault.”
Prosecutors also accused Bannon of “violent rhetoric” outside the courtroom about the committee on his War Room podcast.
“Through his public platforms, the Defendant has used hyperbolic and sometimes violent rhetoric to disparage the Committee’s investigation, personally attack the Committee’s members, and ridicule the criminal justice system,” the wrote.
