WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon must report to prison July 1 to serve a four-month sentence for flouting a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a judge ruled Thursday.
The order would put Bannon, 70, behind bars while his ex-boss learns his own sentence on July 11 in the Manhattan hush money case — which also could include prison time just four days ahead of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump, 77, and his allies have alleged that Democrats are “weaponizing” the US legal system to help President Biden’s struggling re-election campaign.
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence. Getty ImagesDC US District Judge Carl Nichols — a Trump appointee — ordered Bannon, a staunch pro-Trump activist and online broadcaster, to serve his punishment.
Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, was convicted in July 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for flouting the Democrat-led select committee’s demand for testimony and records.
Nichols noted that Bannon could still file for a stay of the order containing his prison reporting date, possibly delaying his punishment.
Bannon’s legal team unsuccessfully argued at trial that he was willing to negotiate with the select committee before he was charged.
Another former Trump aide, former West Wing trade adviser Peter Navarro, was convicted in September 2023 of similarly defying the committee, arguing he was concerned about executive privilege.
Navarro, who helped mount Trump’s trade war with China, reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence.
Trump has had a tumultuous relationship with Bannon, who entered politics after a successful career in investment banking — including brokering a deal involving “Seinfeld” that entitles him to fees whenever the hit sitcom airs.
Bannon joined Trump’ 2016 campaign fewer than three months before the election to serve as chairman in the final stretch, working alongside campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.
He followed Trump into the White House as chief adviser and assiduously pushed him to make good on right-wing campaign promises while feuding with fellow West Wing staffers he deemed “globalists.”
Bannon was Trump’s former chief strategist while he was in office. AFP via Getty ImagesTrump fired Bannon in August 2017 and later trashed him in public remarks for his disheveled appearance, bestowing upon him the nickname “Sloppy Steve.”
The then-president erupted in rage when it emerged that Bannon had given author Michael Wolff wide-ranging access to the White House, which Wolff loosely chronicled in the anti-Trump book “Fire and Fury,” published in early 2018.
The book included quotes attributed to Bannon suggesting that Trump’s son Donald Jr. was “treasonous” and that first daughter Ivanka Trump was “dumb as a brick.”
“[Wolff] used Sloppy Steve Bannon, who cried when he got fired and begged for his job. Now Sloppy Steve has been dumped like a dog by almost everyone. Too bad!” Trump tweeted after the book was published.
Bannon was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress, according to reports. AFP via Getty Images“Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind,” Trump also vented at the time.
“Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party… Steve doesn’t represent my base — he’s only in it for himself.”
In August 2020, Trump again slammed Bannon after the ex-aide was criminally charged with fraud over a private fundraiser to build portions of the US-Mexico border wall, which the sitting president had already redirected billions of defense dollars to construct.
Bannon used supposed wall funds to finance his own lifestyle, prosecutors alleged.
Peter Navarro, a second Trump aide, was also convicted of contempt of Congress and reported to prison in March to serve a four-month sentence. Getty Images“I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” Trump said at the time.
“I didn’t like that project,” the then-president added. “I thought it was a project being done for showboating reasons … It was something I very much felt was inappropriate to be doing.”
Trump and Bannon later reconciled — with Bannon helping Trump’s then-attorney Rudy Giuliani distribute the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop ahead of the 2020 election and then cheerleading his allegations of voter fraud when Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Trump pardoned Bannon on the pending wall-fraud case on his final day in office on Jan. 20, 2021, ahead of what was supposed to be a May 2021 federal trial on fraud and money laundering counts.
