Joe Biden’s Justice Department is eager to make an example out of long-time Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon for defying the January 6th committee’s show trial and its basic premise that the 2020 election was on the level.
As Bannon awaits sentencing in Washington, D.C. Friday for contempt of Congress, the DOJ recommended that he serve six months in jail and pay $200,000 in fines, ABC reported.
DOJ recommends harsh sentence
The recommended penalties are at the “top end” of the sentencing guidelines, the DOJ said. They argued that Bannon deserves the harsh treatment because his disdain for the January 6th committee, the “rule of law,” and the “peaceful transfer of power.”
“The Defendant has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country’s peaceful transfer of power,” a government filing says.
Prosecutors also complained that Bannon’s “exaggerated and sometimes violent” rhetoric disparaged the January 6th committee and its investigation, the results of which have been publicized in a series of dramatic, made-for-TV spectacles.
Bannon came out guns blazing against the January 6th “show trial” when he was convicted of contempt of Congress in July.
“We may have lost a battle here today, but we’re not going to lose this war,” he said.
Regime crackdown
The DOJ also dismissed Bannon’s last-minute offer to cooperate before his trial as a gambit to have the charges dropped.
“When his quid pro quo attempt failed, the Defendant made no further attempt at cooperation with the Committee — speaking volumes about his bad faith,” prosecutors said.
Former Trump aide Peter Navarro has also been charged with contempt of Congress for snubbing the January 6th committee. Bannon has asked for probation and for his sentence to be stayed pending appeal.
His sentencing comes as speculation continues to build over whether Biden’s DOJ will take the extraordinary step of charging Trump, Biden’s chief political rival, for mishandling government records. Trump and his allies are also facing criminal investigations for attempting to challenge the 2020 election.
Biden effectively declared “MAGA Republicans” enemies of the state in a divisive speech in September, blasting their refusal to accept the “free” 2020 election as a threat to the “rule of law.” But many say Biden’s FBI is making a mockery of the rule of law by cracking down on conservative protesters while letting violent leftists off the hook.