Another previous top advisor to former President Donald Trump is scheduled to report to a federal prison for a four-month prison term.
On Monday, former White House adviser and host of the “War Room” podcast, Steve Bannon, will record his final show near the Connecticut low-security facility where he will stay through the end of October.
“We’ll be as close to the prison as we can possibly get,” Bannon told The New York Times in a weekend interview. “I’ll walk across the street and surrender.”
Bannon’s four-month incarceration will keep him off the airwaves until just days before the November election. The colossal figure in conservative media was convicted on contempt of Congress charges two years ago. Bannon refused to comply with a congressional subpoena from a partisan committee established in violation of House rules. A federal judge upheld the months-long prison term earlier this month.
On Friday, the Supreme Court denied Bannon’s final appeal as the justices delivered rulings on the Justice Department’s zealous prosecution of political opponents present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Federal prosecutors, the court ruled, inappropriately weaponized a broad interpretation of a 2002 law to charge Jan. 6 defendants with additional felonies carrying decades in jail time.
Bannon’s own two-year legal drama and Trump’s prosecution for nearly 100 state and federal charges reflect only the highest profile cases of the far-left’s lawfare campaign deployed ahead of the 2024 election. The DOJ charged more than 300 defendants with obstruction charges under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Other prominent conservative figures, meanwhile, including former Trump Trade Adviser Peter Navarro and Weidong “Bill” Guan of The Epoch Times, have faced prosecution by an incumbent regime that is still intent on censoring conservative media. Navarro similarly commenced a four-month prison sentence in late March for refusing to comply with the Jan. 6 Committee’s partisan subpoenas issued in the House probe’s Soviet-style inquisition.
In addition, Trump was charged on fabricated election crimes in Georgia alongside 18 other allies, while his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows also fights to remain out of jail. Earlier this month, Meadows, along with Trump 2020 Election Day operations director Michael Roman, pled not guilty in another election-related case in Arizona.
The cascade of continual charges and jail time for Trump’s advisors and supporters showcases a legal effort to undermine the former president’s latest campaign, an effort that extends far beyond the Republican candidate himself. In other words, it’s not just Trump that prosecutors are after, but those who worked for Trump either on his 2020 campaign or in the White House.
