Washington, D.C. After being found guilty of disobeying a subpoena from the House panel looking into the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol, Steve Bannon, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, is expected to be sentenced on Friday.
He came on Friday morning for the sentencing hearing at the federal courtroom in Washington. Bannon was convicted in July of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents.
While Bannon’s attorneys believed their client deserved a probationary sentence, prosecutors asked the judge in his case to impose a severe penalty of six months in jail. The statutes for contempt of Congress each carry a minimum sentence of 30 days behind bars, but Bannon’s lawyers argue the judge could just sentence him to probation and not send him to jail.
Bannon’s participation in Trump’s plans to rig the 2020 presidential election was the subject of the House committee’s request for his testimony. Prosecutors stated that Bannon has not yet testified or given the committee any documents.
Bannon, 68, was given a longer sentence, according to the prosecution, because of his “bad faith strategy” and his public criticism of the committee, which made it clear he intended to thwart their efforts to investigate the cause of the violent attack and prevent anything similar from happening again.
When Bannon was initially served with a committee subpoena last year, Trump objected on the grounds of executive privilege, according to the defence, which said Bannon wasn’t operating in bad faith. The former presidential adviser claimed that he wanted a Trump lawyer there but that the committee forbade it.
Other former White House officials who testified only on their own behalf included a large number.
Bannon was a private individual and no longer employed by the White House when he advised the president before to the incident. He had been ousted from that position in 2017.
Bannon added that when Trump waived executive privilege, he had offered to testify. However, that was following the filing of the contempt charges, and according to the prosecution, he would only agree to do the deposition if the matter was dropped.
The maximum fine has been sought by the prosecution because they claim Bannon refused to respond to basic inquiries about his income and argued he could pay whatever the judge ordered.
Steve Bannon, a supporter of Trump, will be punished for disrespect.
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