Justice Dept. Recommends Bannon Be Sentenced to 6 Months in Prison - The New York Times

Politics|Justice Dept. Recommends Bannon Be Sentenced to 6 Months successful Prison

The Justice Department said connected Monday that Stephen K. Bannon, a erstwhile apical adjutant to Donald J. Trump, should walk six months successful jailhouse and wage a good of $200,000 aft a jury recovered him guilty this summertime of willfully disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.

Mr. Bannon “pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” from the infinitesimal helium received the subpoena past twelvemonth seeking records and grounds astir his cognition of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, culminating successful the convulsive battle connected the Capitol, prosecutors said successful a sentencing memo to Judge Carl J. Nichols, who is overseeing the case.

The prosecutors noted that Mr. Bannon, who is acceptable to beryllium sentenced by Judge Nichols connected Friday, deserved a punishment harsher than the minimum word of 1 period successful jailhouse due to the fact that helium had blatantly brushed disconnected the committee’s demands and past attacked it successful a bid of brazen nationalist statements.

Mr. Bannon, connected the eve of his trial successful Federal District Court successful Washington, besides tried an 11th-hour effort to derail the transgression lawsuit by asking Congress to unit the Justice Department to driblet its charges successful speech for his belated grounds to the Jan. 6 committee.

In their ain sentencing memo, lawyers for Mr. Bannon recommended that helium should not walk immoderate clip successful jailhouse and alternatively person a word of probation. They argued that radical were seldom prosecuted connected contempt of Congress charges and that the Justice Department declined to record indictments against 2 of Mr. Trump’s different aides who besides disregarded subpoenas from the committee: Mark Meadows, his last main of staff, and Dan Scavino Jr., a lawman to Mr. Meadows.

But Mr. Bannon is not the lone erstwhile Trump adjutant who was charged with disobeying a subpoena from the committee. Around the aforesaid clip that prosecutors announced they would not question cases against Mr. Meadows and Mr. Scavino, they indicted Peter Navarro, the erstwhile White House commercialized adviser, connected contempt of Congress charges.

Mr. Navarro is scheduled to spell connected proceedings successful Washington adjacent month.

Prosecutors were outraged erstwhile Mr. Bannon made a singular about-face months agone arsenic his transgression proceedings approached and sought to onslaught a last-minute woody to attest earlier the committee. But successful its sentencing memo, the authorities revealed caller details of however Mr. Bannon tried to stave disconnected his prosecution by negotiating an statement with legislature investigators.

Prosecutors said that conscionable this month, Timothy J. Heaphy, the committee’s apical investigator, told them that M. Evan Corcoran, 1 of Mr. Bannon’s lawyers, had sent him a substance connection asking to talk soon earlier Mr. Bannon’s proceedings began.

Mr. Heaphy said helium was “friendly” with Mr. Corcoran due to the fact that they had worked unneurotic arsenic national prosecutors successful the aforesaid office, and helium disquieted astir responding without witnesses.

Mr. Heaphy assembled 2 different apical lawyers from the committee to perceive to what Mr. Corcoran wanted. Mr. Corcoran projected that the committee articulation a question to disregard the lawsuit successful speech for a pledge that Mr. Bannon nutrient documents that the committee had demanded nether subpoena and beryllium for an interrogation — precisely what Mr. Bannon had refused to bash for months.

Mr. Heaphy told Mr. Corcoran that the committee could not instrumentality specified a position, and that the substance was present successful the hands of the Justice Department.

Even aft Mr. Bannon was recovered blameworthy of contempt of Congress successful July, prosecutors told Judge Nichols, helium failed to disclose a azygous papers to the committee oregon reply immoderate of its questions.

“From the clip helium was initially subpoenaed, the suspect has shown his existent reasons for full noncompliance person thing to bash with his purported respect for the Constitution, the regularisation of instrumentality oregon enforcement privilege,” prosecutors wrote, “and everything to bash with his idiosyncratic disdain for the members of Congress sitting connected the committee and their effort to analyse the onslaught connected our country’s peaceful transportation of power.”

Mr. Bannon had astatine archetypal sought to support himself by arguing that helium could not comply with the subpoena due to the fact that Mr. Trump had asserted enforcement privilege implicit his testimony. He besides tried to reason that successful disobeying the committee’s demands, helium had simply been pursuing the proposal of his lawyers.

But successful pretrial rulings, Judge Nichols swept speech those arguments, leaving Mr. Bannon with small defence against the accusation that helium had received a subpoena from the House committee and simply chose to disregard it.

“It wasn’t optional, it wasn’t a request, and it wasn’t an invitation — it was mandatory,” a national authoritative said during opening statements astatine the trial. “The suspect decided helium was supra the instrumentality and didn’t person to travel the government’s orders similar his chap citizens.”

Mr. Bannon besides faces separate charges successful New York of defrauding radical who sought to lend to an enactment that took donations for the operation of a partition on the southwestern border, 1 of Mr. Trump’s signature argumentation platforms.

In that case, which mostly mirrored 1 that Mr. Bannon escaped done a statesmanlike pardon past year, the Manhattan territory attorney’s bureau charged him with fraud, wealth laundering and conspiracy.