Friday, a federal judge sentenced former adviser to President Trump to four months in prison for the high crime of refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the grotesque collection of lackwits that is the so-called January 6 Committee.
“Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes,” said Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, who also imposed a fine of $6,500 on Mr. Bannon. He will remain free pending his appeal.
In a contentious exchange with the defense team before announcing a sentence, Judge Nichols said Mr. Bannon had shown “no remorse for his actions” and had yet to “demonstrate he has any intention of complying with the subpoena.”
Mr. Bannon served briefly as Mr. Trump’s top political adviser in the White House five years ago, yet he claimed that his interactions with Mr. Trump after the 2020 election were protected by executive privilege.
Although Judge Nichols rejected Mr. Bannon’s expansive interpretation of executive privilege, he cited several reasons for not giving Mr. Bannon the maximum six-month sentence the government had requested, including Mr. Bannon’s belated effort to reach an agreement with the committee, his service in the Navy, his lack of a criminal history and the unsettled judicial status of executive privilege.
I’m not a Steve Bannon fan. If they’d sent him to jail for four months for misdemeanor mopery with the intent to loiter, I might be able to support the decision. But that isn’t what happened.
Bannon was subpoenaed to testify before the January 6 Committee with the intent to paint a legitimate campaign to contest election results in a few areas that were obviously riddled with vote fraud as “insurrection.” Instead, Bannon communicated with the lynch mob via his attorney and declined to testify.
Historically, that should have been the end of it. When Lois Lerner refused to testify on her leadership role in organizing a partisan vendetta against conservative non-profits, the investigating committee issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice. Nothing happened. When Attorney General Eric Holder refused to testify about his role in green-lighting a gun-running scheme organized by the ATF that resulted in the murders of hundreds of Mexican nationals and US Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, a criminal referral was issued by the committee. Again, nothing happened.
But when a vindictive committee empaneled as part of a personal and political vendetta against President Trump sends a criminal referral on what is, at best, a chickensh** charge, it literally becomes a federal case. And just to ensure things stay on track, the man prosecuting the case is a former member of Joe Biden’s campaign — I use the term “man” very loosely,
See DOJ Recommends Outrageous Sentence for Steve Bannon). Of course, we’re also supposed to ignore the fact that the case was tried in front of a DC jury.
And Steve Bannon gets four months in prison.
Bannon talked about his case in front of the courthouse and on Tucker Carlson; they are worth the time.
I understand that Bannon is in a difficult position as his case is under appeal. But I think he misses the major lesson learned in this travesty. Yes, we need to vote out the people who organized and participated in this assault on the rule of law. But that is not nearly sufficient.
The only takeaway from this is that the rule of law is dead. The idea of precedent and consistency is as dead as the rule of law. It is clear that the law as enforced by Joe Biden’s Justice Department depends upon your race, your income, and most of all, your politics. If you attached yourself to the BLM riots, you can assault police officers and use Molotov cocktails as weapons, and the law shrugs. If you are a disabled retiree who entered the Capitol on January 6 after Capitol Hill Police opened the doors, you will be hunted down like Osama bin Laden. If you are a pro-life demonstrator who pushed some creep away from his son, you’ll be visited by a SWAT team and threatened with a decade in prison (New Details of Outrageous FBI Raid on Catholic Activist Mark Houck Shock the Conscience; FBI Agents Raid Home of Pro-Life Author With Guns Drawn in Front of His Screaming Kids.)
Yes, we need to professionally punish everyone who participated in this decision to prosecute Bannon in the harshest way possible under the law. Not because Bannon is special but because if they can go after a man with political connections and money in this way, they will go after you and me. Merrick Garland must be impeached at least once a week until the end of his term in office. Then, when a Republican president replaces the simpering, brain-dead sack of failure who currently holds the office, Garland needs to go to prison. His buddy Matthew Graves needs the same experience. Liz Cheney needs to have a dedicated team of auditors comb her finances and send her to prison, too.
Not only will this, as the left is so fond of saying, “bring closure,” it is critical for the fate of the Republic. Because unless we take vengeance on this bunch, the lesson we’ve taught the Democrats is that they are free to investigate and harass every Republican president and his cabinet and advisers from now on out. These people always treat respect for Constitutional norms and the rule of law on our side as weakness and fear. They need to be disabused of that notion. If we can’t do it, nothing good lies ahead for our country.
