Steve Bannon convicted on contempt of Congress, could face two years
Steve Bannon, who is considered to be the brains behind Donald Trump’s ethno-populist rise to power in 2016, has now been convicted on two charges of contempt of Congress. The podcaster and one-time Breitbart News honcho had refused to appear before, or provide documents to, the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Before his short, week-long contempt trial began, Bannon had talked tough, saying he would “go medieval” on his enemies (a possible reference to the memorable Ving Rhames line from Pulp Fiction). But his defense lacked teeth; he presented no witnesses, and his arguments in court were mostly rejected by the trial judge, reports the Washington Post.
Of Trump’s circle of confidantes (sometimes referred to as “the clown car“), Bannon has now come closest to paying an actual price for thumbing his nose at the justice system. U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols has scheduled a sentencing hearing for October 21. Each misdemeanor conviction could earn Bannon as much as a year of jail time, or as little as 30 days.
However, the Post points out, since the days of Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, nobody has actually done time for contempt of Congress in the U.S.
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