(Washington) Steve Bannon, who was an influential adviser to Donald Trump in the White House, was sentenced Friday to four months in prison for his refusal to cooperate with the parliamentary investigation into the assault on the Capitol.
Posted at 11:04 a.m.
This sentence, accompanied by a fine of 6,500 dollars, will remain pending if he appeals, said judge Carl Nichols after a hearing in a federal court in Washington.
A ferocious critic of the establishment, Steve Bannon, who was an investment banker or director of the radical right-wing news site Breitbart, is considered one of the architects of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016.
Having become one of the president’s powerful advisers, he was ousted from the White House in August 2017 after far-right violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
But he had remained close to the Republican billionaire and had exchanged with him again on January 5, 2021, on the eve of the attack on the headquarters of Congress. After their conversation, he predicted an onslaught of “all hell” the next day in Washington.
To find out the content of their discussions, the parliamentary commission of inquiry responsible for shedding light on Donald Trump’s role in this coup had summoned Steve Bannon to testify and produce documents.
He had refused, invoking the right of presidents to keep certain conversations secret, which had earned him the charge of “obstructing the investigative powers of Congress”.
” Contempt “
During his trial in July, Steve Bannon produced no witnesses and did not speak. Jurors found him guilty after less than three hours of deliberation.
Despite everything, he “has still not sent any document to the commission or testified before its members”, underlined the prosecutors in a document sent to the judge before the hearing.
“For this contempt and persistent bad faith, he should be sentenced to six months in prison, the maximum of the penalty schedule, and a fine of $200,000,” they demanded.
Steve Bannon is also being prosecuted for fraud by New York justice as part of an investigation into fundraising to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, one of Donald Trump’s main campaign promises. .
He had already been implicated in this case by federal justice, before being pardoned by Donald Trump in the last days of his presidency.
The former president is himself the subject of several investigations and the commission of January 6 announced that it was going to summon him to appear.
Its members, seven Democrats and two Republicans, must publish a report on their work by the end of the year, in which they could recommend indicting the former president. The decision will ultimately be up to the Department of Justice Merrick Garland, a prudent man who does not exclude anything.