Steve Bannon was released from prison Tuesday after serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Bannon’s exit from a Connecticut prison comes exactly one week from Election Day, where his former boss, former President Trump, is neck-and-neck with his Democratic opponent, Vice President Harris. Bannon will likely return to the helm of his “War Room” podcast, known for its fiery political rhetoric and be free just in time for the critical home stretch of the presidential contest.
The onetime Trump adviser was convicted in 2022 of failing to appear for a deposition ordered by the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee and failing to produce documents related to the probe.
He sought to remain out of prison while appealing his conviction, but the Supreme Court denied his last-ditch bid to remain free days before he was set to report to prison.
Bannon was the second Trump White House aide to serve prison time for defying the House Jan. 6 panel, after ex-trade adviser Peter Navarro was incarcerated following his conviction on the same charges.
The House voted to censure three others for contempt of Congress tied to Jan. 6, including ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, but federal prosecutors declined to bring charges in those instances.
At trial, Navarro argued that executive privilege barred him from sharing information with the House committee – but at trial, Navarro’s judge blocked that argument from being part of his defense after finding that he failed to prove Trump invoked it in the first place.
Navarro’s attorneys say that decision “hamstrung” the ex-Trump adviser’s defense, and the issue is central to his appeal.
Navarro was released from a Miami federal prison in July, and hours later, took the stage at the Republican National Convention.
While Navarro was ordered to serve his sentence while appealing, Bannon’s trial judge allowed him to remain out of prison due to a federal law that keeps defendants free if their appeal presents a substantial legal question that could result in a reversal or new trial.
Bannon similarly argued at trial that his hands were tied when faced with the committee subpoena, given Trump’s claim of executive privilege.
But the first stage of that appeal failed in May, so Bannon’s judge granted the government’s request to end that pause and send him into incarceration by July 1.
“There is nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up,” he told reporters outside the courthouse after the judge ordered him to report to prison.
“There’s not a prison built or a jail built that’ll ever shut me up.”
