Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon sentenced to four months for refusing to testify over Capitol siege

21 October 2022, 16:26

Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon has been sentenced to four months in jail after he refused to co-operate with the congressional committee investigating last year's Capitol riots.

Bannon was convicted in July of two counts of contempt of US congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents. He was sentenced to jail today and also fined $6,500.

Contempt of congress carries a minimum sentence of 30 days behind bars under US law.

The house committee had sought Bannon's testimony over his involvement in Mr Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Bannon has yet to testify or provide any documents to the committee, prosecutors wrote.

They argued that Bannon, 68, deserved the longer sentence because he had pursued a "bad faith strategy" and his public statements disparaging the committee itself made it clear he wanted to undermine their effort to get to the bottom of the violent attack and keep anything like it from happening again.

The defence, meanwhile, said he was not acting in bad faith, but trying to avoid running afoul of executive privilege objections Mr Trump had raised when Bannon was first served with a committee subpoena last year.

The one-time presidential adviser said he wanted to have a lawyer for Mr Trump in the room, but the committee would not allow it.

Many other former White House aides have testified with only their own counsel.

Bannon was sacked from the White House in 2017 and was a private citizen when he was consulting with the then-president before the riot.

Bannon, 68, denies wrongdoing and is expected to appeal his conviction.