Steve Bannon's Prison Sentence Takes Him Out of the 2024 Election

     Steve Bannon is going to prison. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving Trump affiliate. Two years ago today, an article published in The Atlantic described Bannon as a "lit bomb in the mouth of democracy." Like Trump and his dozens of other criminal associates, that is true. However, unlike virtually all of the others, Bannon would likely admit it and be proud of it. In November 2016, Bannon himself said, "Darkness is good." Before Trump came along, Bannon made himself the leading public voice for white nationalism and fascism. The former executive chairman of the far-right fake news site Breitbart, Bannon served as vice president on the board of Cambridge Analytica, which used illegal tactics to target voters in the 2016 election. He also founded the right-wing populist group "The Movement," which seeks to promote fascism across Europe.

     When the Access Hollywood tape came out, when Trump's campaign seemed to be all but over, Bannon more than anyone else believed in Trump's impending victory, and he was rewarded with the position of chief strategist to Trump after leading his criminal 2016 campaign. In this position, he helped craft the Trump administration's Muslim ban and asylum restrictions. After leaving the White House, Bannon's actions went from despicable morally to downright criminal.

     He associated himself heavily with Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, who was charged in 2023 with fraud. Bannon was charged federally in 2020 for scamming donors to the "We Build the Wall" campaign, taking hundreds of thousands in salary after claiming to donors every cent would be spent on building a border wall with Mexico. Bannon's three co-conspirators were convicted and received sentences of 36, 51, and 63 months in federal prison. However, on his last day in office, Trump pardoned Bannon federally. That didn't protect Bannon from state charges, and, in September 2022, Bannon was arrested on state money laundering charges carrying up to 25 years in prison. That case is set for trial in September 2024 before Judge Juan Merchan.

     Then there was January 6th. Bannon refused to comply with subpoenas from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol seeking documents as well as testimony. Bannon was held in contempt by the committee, referred by the House to the Justice Department, charged with contempt of Congress in November 2021, and convicted by a jury in July 2022. Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, sentenced Bannon to four months in prison. However, he allowed him to remain free pending appeal, saying he disagreed with a 1961 D.C. Court of Appeals decision barring most advice of counsel defenses in criminal contempt cases. However, in May of this year, a panel of the appeals court unanimously upheld Bannon's conviction, and Judge Nichols ordered Bannon to report to prison on July 1st.

     The timing of this ruling, which came as a pleasant surprise, is absolutely delicious. What's important to remember is that it wasn't the Justice Department or the jury that chose to delay this case for two years: it was Bannon himself convincing a Trump-appointed judge to not send him to prison during the appeals process. For starters, the other Trump White House advisor sentenced for contempt, Peter Navarro, is currently serving his sentence. He is scheduled for release on July 17th, which means that both men could be in prison at the same time for a couple of weeks. July. August. September. October. If Bannon serves his full sentence, he won't be out until a week before the 2024 election. As we've seen, Bannon, unlike anyone else, has a power to move and unite the worst of humanity in Trumpworld, people who make Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman look tame by comparison. Bannon played a crucial role in getting Trump elected in 2016, and him being out of action during the four most crucial months of the 2024 election is in itself a huge victory for American democracy at a time when it is so vulnerable.

     The timing of the ruling also brings back to American discourse the name Robert Costello, a New York attorney whose antics in the 2016 Trump election interference trial forced Judge Merchan to clear the courtroom and threaten Costello with contempt. Costello was the lawyer whose advice Bannon claimed he was following in blowing off the January 6th Committee, and he was in a D.C. court during the hearing today. Costello ignored the millions of criminal defendants to aren't old, white multimillionaires and claimed that Bannon somehow had a right to be free pending appeal, that the day's proceedings weren't the America that he knew. Judge Nichols had to become the second judge in as many months to reprimand Costello for his behavior in court.

     There's one more sweet little treat buried in there, as well: Bannon is currently scheduled for trial in September. It could be pushed back while he serves his federal sentence, but, in any case, Bannon will be out of the frying pan and into the fire once his sentence for contempt of Congress is complete: he'll have to sit before Judge Juan Merchan in a New York courtroom on the aforementioned "We Build the Wall" charges. Bannon is already a convicted criminal. His three co-defendants in that case are sitting in prison. These men are serving sentences of years, not months, and Bannon was the chair of the board. He, more than the other men, led this scheme. He is going to be convicted by a New York jury, and four months is going to look like nothing compared to what awaits him when Judge Merchan sentences him. Bannon may very likely spend the rest of his 70s in a New York state prison.

       Peter Navarro was the first Trump aid to wind up in prison for trying to overthrow the 2020 election. Today, Steve Bannon earned the distinction of being second. Trump himself is set to be sentenced on July 11th on 34 felony counts for interfering with the 2016 election. Justice is slowly but surely coming for these fiends. Today is a good day for America.