The Biden Justice Department has asked a federal judge to force former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to begin serving his 4-month prison sentence.
The request comes days after a federal appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction.
“Consequently, there is no longer a ‘substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,’” the request reads, according to ABC News. “Under these circumstances, the Court ‘shall order’ defendant ‘be detained,’ so the stay of sentence must be lifted.”
Of course the Biden administration wants to make the judge order Steve Bannon to start his jail sentence now. He is way too effective and his following is way too big. Thats what communists always do.
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) May 14, 2024
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols responded to the request by giving Bannon’s team until Thursday to voice their own opinion on the matter.
“I’m shocked they want to silence the voice of MAGA,” Bannon later told ABC News in response to the request.
Bannon was originally sentenced to four months in prison two years ago on Oct. 21st, 2022, three months after he was found guilty of essentially ignoring a subpoena from the now-defunct Jan. 6th committee.
“On Sept. 23, 2021, the Select Committee issued a subpoena to Bannon,” an old press release from the DOJ reads. “In its subpoena, the Select Committee said it had reason to believe that he had information relevant to understanding events related to Jan. 6, 2021.”
“The subpoena required him to appear and produce documents to the Select Committee on Oct. 7, 2021, and to appear for a deposition before the Select Committee on Oct. 14, 2021. Bannon refused to appear to give testimony as required by subpoena and refused to produce documents in compliance with a subpoena,” the press release continues.
https://t.co/UzHLYEsXEx. pic.twitter.com/umrtwiZbhc
— Rob Noerr (@robnoerr) December 13, 2023
Prosecutors for their part argued in court that he’d ignored the subpoena because of his “disdain” for Congress.
“From the time he was initially subpoenaed, the Defendant has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country’s peaceful transfer of power,” they wrote.
Following the conviction, Bannon immediately filed an appeal that was eventually rejected by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 10th, 2024.
“We conclude that none of the information sought in the trial subpoenas was relevant to the elements of the contempt offense, nor to any affirmative defense Bannon was entitled to present at trial,” the panel ruled. “The judgment of conviction and sentence [is] affirmed.”
Meanwhile, Bannon is facing an unrelated trial related to the scandalous “We Build the Wall” campaign that was supposed to raise money specifically for building a southern U.S. border wall.
“Instead, prosecutors allege Bannon defrauded donors by falsely promising that none of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of ‘We Build the Wall’ president Brian Kolfage — while Bannon secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage by laundering it through third-party entities,” ABC News notes.
“As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss with the Southern District of New York said, according to a DOJ statement.
“While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle,” Strauss continued.
“The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds,” added Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the United States Postal Inspection Service.
“As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth,” Bartlett continued.
Bannon has pleaded not guilty in this case. The trial was originally scheduled for May but then was postponed because the judge, Juan Merchan, is currently busy overseeing the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.
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Author: Vivek Saxena
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