Trump adviser Steve Bannon sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress
A federal judge in Washington sentenced former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon to four months in jail and fined him $6,500 for criminal contempt of Congress stemming from his refusal to honour a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee.
Judge Carl Nichols, one of former president Donald Trump’s appointees to the federal bench, said Bannon had been “a private citizen” who withheld information “under which no conceivable claim of executive privilege could’ve been made”.
And while the judge acknowledged Bannon’s compliance with court orders while his case was pending and took note of his service in the US Navy, he said a custodial sentence was necessary to keep others from believing they can ignore congressional subpoenas.
“Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,” he said.
The judge also found that Bannon may remain free while he appeals his conviction.
Judge Nichols passed sentence after a contentious hearing at which Bannon’s lawyers repeatedly attacked the select committee and the government’s prosecution as politically motivated and defended the conduct which earned him a criminal conviction as being justified by adherence to the US constitution.
Many of the arguments raised by Bannon’s legal team at sentencing had been rejected by the judge before his July trial, after which a jury found him guilty on two counts of contempt of congress.
Prosecutors had argued in court papers that the ex-Trump adviser turned podcast host should get a six-month sentence for having pursued a “bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” after the House select committee issued him a subpoena compelling him to produce documents and give evidence in a deposition.
The government had also asked Judge Nichols to impose a $200,000 fine because Bannon refused to cooperate with a pre-sentencing probe into his finances.
With additional reporting by agencies
Source link
from World eNews Online https://ift.tt/p7VRtJh
via World enews
Labels: news, World eNews Online, worldnews
posted by business enews @ October 22, 2022
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home