Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon will be spending his sentence for contempt of Congress in a low-security prison instead of the comfortable, minimum-security facility he favored.
Former President Donald Trump’s chief strategist is set to begin a four-month prison sentence on July 1. A pending criminal case against Bannon in New York is blocking the former adviser’s ability to serve time in a cushy “Club Fed” prison, the most comfortable type of facility available for prisoners. Instead, Bannon will be imprisoned in Danbury, Connecticut, where he will likely be housed with other incarcerated people.
Offenders such as Bannon convicted of first-time, non-violent, white-collar crimes are typically not required to serve jail time. According to some legal experts, Bannon’s sentencing was a break from historical precedent.
In 2022, a jury convicted Bannon on contempt of Congress charges after he refused to comply with the now-defunct House Select Committee for the Jan. 6 riots subpoena to sit for questioning.
Bannon has argued he did not break the law because he was covered by Trump’s assertion of executive privilege and was listening to his lawyers when he declined to provide testimony or documents to the committee.
The Jan. 6 committee has come under fire as some critics question its handling of what happened during the Capitol protest. House Republicans, including Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), have slammed the committee for cherry-picking evidence to suit its version of what happened on Jan. 6 and illegally deleting information collected during its investigation. Earlier this month, Congress released video footage that recorded then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) taking full responsibility for the breakdown in security at the Capitol.
“We have responsibility, Terri,” Pelosi told Terri McCullough, her chief of staff, as events unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021. ”We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous.”
In the video recording, Pelosi goes on to take the blame for not having a sufficient National Guard presence to protect the Capitol.
“They [the National Guard] clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more,” Pelosi says.
The Jan. 6 committee claimed Trump was responsible for the events that unfolded at the Capitol.
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Trump “made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office, to ignore the ongoing violence against law enforcement, threatening our constitutional order,” committee member Liz Cheney said during a hearing in July 2022.
Shortly before its dissolution at the conclusion of the 117th Congress in January 2023, the committee released a report blaming Trump for the Capitol protest.