The US Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to sentence former President Donald Trump’s adviser Steve Bannon to six months in prison for defying a subpoena to testify before a congressional committee investigating the United States Capitol riot.
US prosecutors recommended the sentence on Monday, accusing Bannon of pursuing “a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” and publicly disparaging the panel investigating the attack on January 6, 2021.
The Justice Department also urged US District Judge Carl Nichols to fine Bannon $200,000.
“Throughout the pendency of this case, the Defendant has exploited his notoriety — through courthouse press conferences and his War Room podcast — to display to the public the source of his bad-faith refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena: a total disregard for government processes and the law,” the department wrote in its filing.
The recommendations come just days after the January 6 panel last week voted to subpoena Trump in an effort to compel the ex-president’s testimony about the Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election.
Credit: Aljazeera.com
