Steve Bannon sentenced for defying J6 Committee amid growing resistance
Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon Friday was sentenced to four months in jail and a $6,500 fine for defying a January 6 Select Committee subpoena, refusing to appear for questioning. U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols has stayed Bannon’s sentence while the political influencer appeals.
Bannon was indicted in July and convicted by a jury of two counts of contempt of Congress.
Following the conviction, Bannon scorned the committee’s members for not hearing testimony about “what’s driving this: the total and complete illegitimacy of Joe Biden.”
“Trump won,” he said frankly. “Joe Biden’s illegitimate. 50% of the American people believe that today, and they believe that not from hearing the mainstream media, from our great colleagues in the media –” he gestured with his hands to the reporters – “because they won’t show any of it. That information has been suppressed since day one but almost 50% of the American people believe it.”
But the Biden administration was furious with Bannon for not playing by the government’s rules.
“He didn’t want to recognize Congress’ authority or play by the government’s rules,” Justice Department prosecutor Molly Gaston said after the conviction. “Our government only works if people show up and play by the rules and are held accountable when they do not.”
“When he chose to defy a congressional subpoena, that was a crime,” she added. “The defendant chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance with the law.”
Bannon is not the only one refusing to “play by the government’s rules” when it comes to the January 6th narrative.
America’s Frontline News reported last month that John Strand, a January 6th attendee and former director at America’s Frontline Doctors, is facing a maximum of 24 years in prison after rejecting the prosecution’s plea deal, the first January 6th attendee to do so.
“Jan6 is just the most recent political opportunity instigated and weaponized to target anyone departing from the regime’s approved narrative and their ruthless agenda, and to further terrorize and demoralize the public into instinctive self-censorship—intimidating them from even the thought of exercising independence and free speech,” says Strand on his website.
Strand was convicted on all charges on September 27th and faces up to 24 years in prison.
While he committed no violence or vandalism on that day, Strand was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. He was also found guilty of four misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
"I’ve had enough of the injustice and outright evil being perpetrated on the American citizen,” Strand commented. “I will not bend the knee to tyranny, I will not subjugate myself with a fraudulently mandated face hijab or a poisonous clot shot, and I will not bear false witness by confessing to crimes I did not commit.
“I will not remain conveniently quiet as a Marxist mob screams lies about an ‘insurrection!’ that was, in truth, a federal entrapment tool—a deception exploited to destroy innocent lives.”