Prosecutors have recommended former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon serve six months in prison for refusing to testify in court over January 6th hearings.
Bannon is accused of disregarding law along with withholding documents and testimony from the January 6th Committee in a sentencing memo released on Monday. United States Attorney Matthew Graves requested Bannon serve six months in prison for his "bad faith strategy of defiance and contempt," along with a $200,000 fine, according to the sentencing memo.
"By flouting the Select Committee's subpoena and its authority, the Defendant exacerbated that assault," reads the memo. "To this day, he continues to unlawfully withhold documents and testimony that stand to help the Committee's authorized investigation to get to the bottom of what led to January 6 and ascertain what steps must be taken to ensure that it never happens again. That cannot be tolerated."
"This Court should impose a sentence of six months’ imprisonment, reflecting the most severe Guidelines-compliant punishment available, and fine the Defendant $200,000."
Bannon, who was pardoned by former President Donald Trump shortly before leaving office, previously asserted executive privilege regarding his charges. Despite a federal pardon, Bannon is being charged with alleged fraud by New York State regarding his participation in the nonprofit "We Build the Wall" campaign seeking private donations to fund the completion of a border wall.
The memo continued: Executive privilege could not possibly permit the Defendant's total noncompliance; the Defendant was a private citizen who had not worked at the White House for years; the subpoena's demands sought records and information wholly unrelated to the Defendant's tenure there; and multiple categories of the subpoena were completely unrelated to communications with the former President. ... From the time he was initially subpoenaed, [Bannon] has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country's peaceful transfer of power. ... His noncompliance has been complete and unremitting.
"That cannot be tolerated," the memo concludes. "Respect for the rule of law is essential to the functioning of the United States government and to preserving the freedom and good order this country has enjoyed for more than two centuries. The Defendant’s bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt deserves severe punishment."
Trump was subpoenaed by the January 6 Committee last week though the former President has not commented on the matter as of Monday. Legal experts reportedly claim Trump is unlikely to appear or be charged despite the committee's depiction of the former President as the leading figure of the January 6 riot.
