DOJ Recommends 6-Month Sentence, Fine for Steve Bannon Steve Bannon (Getty Images)
By Charlie McCarthy | Monday, 17 October 2022 09:52 AM EDT
The Justice Department on Monday recommended that former Trump adviser Steve Bannon receive six months in jail and a $200,000 fine for refusing a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 select committee.
The recommendation was made in a morning court filing to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
"From the moment that the Defendant, Stephen K. Bannon, accepted service of a subpoena from the House Select Committee … he has pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt," said the filing, which was tweeted by CBS legal reporter Rob Legare.
"For his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, the Defendant should be sentenced to six months' imprisonment—the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines' range—and fined $200,000—based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office's routine pre-sentencing financial investigation."
Bannon's response was expected later Monday, with sentencing scheduled for this week, Legare reported.
A federal judge on July 27 declined a request to acquit Bannon on two contempt charges for defying a subpoena from Speaker Nancy Pelosi's partisan panel – comprised of Democrats and two anti-Trump Republicans – investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The judge added that he would consider dismissing the charges instead.
Five days earlier, a jury found Bannon, 68, guilty of two misdemeanor counts for refusing to provide testimony or documents to the select committee.
In Monday's filing, the DOJ cited Bannon's claim that former President Donald Trump had waived executive privilege.
"The Defendant flouted the Committee's authority and ignored the subpoena's demands. The Defendant, a private citizen, claimed that executive privilege – which did not apply to him and would not have exempted his total noncompliance even if it had – justified his actions," the filing said.
"Then, on the eve of trial, he attempted an about-face, representing to the Committee that former President Donald J. Trump had waived executive privilege and freed the Defendant to cooperate. But this proved a hollow gesture; when he realized that his eleventh-hour stunt would not prevent his trial, the Defendant's cooperative spirit vanished."
Reuters contributed to this story.