The Department of Justice is calling on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon to serve a jail sentence and pay a fine for defyin a subpoena from the January 6th House Special Committee.
They are advocating for a 6-month sentence and a $200,000 fine which is the maximum fine available.
The recommendation comes ahead of a Friday sentencing hearing for Bannon, who was among the first four people to be subpoenaed by the panel. Bannon claimed executive privilege barred him from testifying before the committee despite its interest in actions he took well after his short stint in the White House.
A $200,000 fine is the maximum for the two counts of contempt of Congress — one for refusing to testify, and the other for refusing to produce any of the documents requested in the deposition.
That was a result, the DOJ said, of his refusal to participate in a review of his finances that helps determine the extent of a fine a defendant will pay.
“For his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, the defendant should be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment—the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines’ range—and fined $200,000—based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office’s routine pre-sentencing financial investigation,” the DOJ wrote.
Bannon was called to testify in September of 2021. After he failed to appear, the January 6 committee voted to hold him in contempt.
Bannon will learn his fate on Friday.
