As of: 07/22/2022 9:39 p.m
Bannon had ignored a subpoena from the investigative committee into the Capitol storming: a jury in Washington found ex-President Trump’s former chief strategist guilty. He faces two years in prison.
Ex-President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has been convicted of contempt of Congress. The jury found him guilty of disobeying a subpoena from the investigative committee into the Capitol storming in Washington on January 6, 2021. The U-Committee believes Bannon is a key witness.
Gudrun Engel, ARD Washington, on the verdict against US politician Bannon
tagesschau24 9:15 p.m., 22.7.2022
Two years imprisonment possible
The sentence will be announced at a later date. Bannon faces up to two years in prison. Each of the two counts on which he was found guilty carries a minimum sentence of 30 days.
Bannon was charged last November for failing to appear to testify or release documents when subpoenaed by the committee.
Bannon’s lawyer had argued in vain in the trial, which only began on Monday in federal court, that his client had not deliberately resisted the subpoena. Rather, the date of the survey was “the subject of ongoing discussions”.
In touch with Trump during storm
Bannon, 68, co-founded the right-wing Internet platform Breitbart before Trump brought him into the White House. He was a central figure in Trump’s 2016 election campaign. The President fired him again in 2017.
So at the time of the storming of the Capitol, he no longer held an official position within the US government, but was in contact with Trump.
In his own podcast, Bannon also predicted at the time that “hell will break out”. Radical Trump supporters then stormed Congress when the election victory of Trump’s challenger Joe Biden was to be officially confirmed.