DANBURY, Conn. — Steve Bannon completed his four-month prison sentence for Contempt of Congress exactly one week before the 2024 presidential election.
The longtime ally of former President Donald Trump was held at the Federal Correction Institution in Danbury, Connecticut for refusing to be deposed in a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and refusing to provide documents related to how he aided Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, The Associated Press reported.
Bannon said on his “War Room” podcast on Jan. 5, 2021, that “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow” after he had spoken with Trump.
Bannon contended that he was prohibited from testifying because of executive privilege, blocking access of Congress to communications between the president and his advisors, The Washington Post reported. The court determined that Bannon did not receive a letter from one of Trump’s lawyers directing him not to respond to committee subpoenas.
The events of Jan. 6, 2021, left five people dead either the day of or immediately afterward, another 140 police officers injured and $3 million in damages, The Washington Post reported.
Bannon’s sentence began on July 1 after the Supreme Court declined his request to delay it while he appealed his conviction. He said he was a “political prisoner” and called the Justice Department “corrupt.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Bannon was fined $6,500, USA Today reported.
Bannon is expected to regain control of his “War Room” podcast which was led by a series of guest hosts in Bannon’s absence, CNN reported.
“Steve Bannon is the intellectual leader and general of the MAGA movement,” Mike Davis, a contributor to “War Room,” said, according to The New York Times. “Bannon will come out of prison a week before the election like a roaring caged lion.”
The newspaper called Bannon “a shrewd tactician” and “the rare backroom power broker who can draw crowds based on his own celebrity.”
Bannon’s absence from the platform weakened the podcast, with It dropping from Apple’s Top Podcasts list, CNN reported. But progressive media watchers admit that with his release, “War Room” will start to regain listeners and popularity.
“I think it’s going to take some time to bring the audience back and to mobilize them,” Madeline Peltz, deputy director for rapid response at Media Matters, told CNN. “I don’t think the one-week period between now and the election is enough time to complete that, but I think really, you’ll see it kick into high gear in the post-election chaos that we’re all sort of anticipating.”
Edison Research believes that the podcast’s audience is made up of Republicans by about half, but another third of listeners identify as independents, CNN reported.
Bannon still faces unrelated charges in New York of fraud, money laundering and other counts for allegedly duping donors for $15 million to build the wall on the country’s border with Mexico. Trump had pardoned Bannon in a similar federal case, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed the money laundering and conspiracy charges against Bannon in September 2022. That trial is scheduled to start in December, The Washington Post reported.