This figure of the US extreme right had been recognized in July guilty of obstacles to the prerogatives of investigation of the congress by a federal court, after having refused to cooperate with the commission on the assault of the Capitol.
Le Monde with AFP and reuters
Steve Bannon, former advisor to Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison by the Washington Federal Court on Friday October 21. This sentence, with a fine of $ 6,500 (just over 6,606 euros).
During his trial, in July, Steve Bannon had produced no witness and had not spoken. The jurors declared her guilty of obstacles to the prerogatives of investigation of the Congress, for having refused to testify and for having refused to transmit documents. Prosecutors had requested six months in detention. His lawyers had pleaded parole or house arrest.
This 68-year-old man, a figure of right-wing populism in the United States, immediately expressed his intention to appeal, which suspends the application of the sentence. He was therefore able to come out of the court. In front of the cameras, he assured “respect [r] the judge’s decision” but immediately slipped into the political field. “November 8 will be the day of the judgment of the illegitimate regime of [Joe] Biden (…), and we know how it will end,” he launched in reference to the mid-term elections, in which the Democrats could lose control of the congress.
citing several members of the commission of inquiry on January 6, responsible for shedding light on the role of Donald Trump in the coup de force of his supporters, Steve Bannon predicted that they “are [AIE] nt beaten “.
“Respecting the congress is an important component of our constitutional system,” justified the district judge Carl Nichols, stressing that Steve Bannon had, to date, still produced “no document or delivered any testimony” to the commission.
Faithful contemporary of the Establishment, Steve Bannon, who was a business banker or director of the Breitbart right -wing right -wing information site, is considered one of the artisans of the 2016 Donald Trump victory. Having become one of the president’s main advisers, he had been dismissed from the White House in August 2017 after violence perpetrated by far -right supporters in Charlottesville, Virginia.
remained close to Trump
But he had remained close to the republican billionaire. According to the parliamentary commission of inquiry, Steve Bannon spoke with Donald Trump at least twice the day before the attack, attended a planning meeting in a Washington hotel and declared on his right podcast that “all hell [was going to be unleashed tomorrow. “
Friday’s decision does not end Steve Bannon’s judicial problems. In September he was charged in September money laundering chiefs, conspiracy and embezzlement as part of the private campaign called “We build the wall”, which raised 25 million dollars (25.13 million euros) on behalf of this project dear to the former republican president. The former president is himself the subject of several surveys, and the commission of January 6 announced that it would assign him to appear.
Its members, seven democrats and two Republicans, must publish a report on their work by the end of the year, in which they could recommend that the former president. The decision will ultimately return to the Minister of Justice, Merrick Garland, a cautious man who excludes anything.