Former Trump aide Steve Bannon is released from prison
Donald Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon has been released from prison after four months in prison.
Bannon, 70, was released from the Danbury, Connecticut, correctional facility on Tuesday, Benjamin O’Cone, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, told the BBC.
Bannon, a conservative podcast host who played a key role in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to comply with subpoenas appear before a congressional hearing in connection with the investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot.
According to the New York Times, when Bannon was released, he said: “If people think American politics has been divisive in the past, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
Bannon is scheduled to host his podcast – War Room – on Tuesday and hold a press conference in New York City.
Before being sent to prison, Bannon relayed a consistent message of loyalty to Trump and hostility toward Democratic Party figures.
“I am Nancy Pelosi’s political prisoner, I am Merrick Garland’s political prisoner; I am a political prisoner of Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden organization,” he said before going to prison.
He promised to continue helping Trump and his campaign behind bars.
“I have served my country for about the last 10 years and focused on this issue,” he told the BBC before going to jail, referring to politics and Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) slogan. “If I have to do it in prison, I’ll do it in prison – it makes no difference.”
The Trump loyalist declared on his podcast in May that Democrats would “do anything to steal this election.”
He has repeatedly falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Bannon is still facing other legal troubles – having been indicted on money laundering, fraud and conspiracy charges in a separate case in New York state in 2022.
He is accused of defrauding donors to a fundraiser that promised to build part of a wall on the US-Mexico border. Bannon has pled not guilty.
