Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in July 2022 for defying subpoenas from the House January 6 committee. He was sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022, but the sentence was on hold as he pursued an appeal.
His appeal was rejected in May and he was ordered to report to jail by July 1. There remains plenty of controversy over the charges Bannon faced and the punishment he received, but he is due to start his sentence on Monday nonetheless. On Friday’s show, Bannon joined Megyn to discuss how he is feeling ahead of his jail time.
The Charges
Much has been made of the ‘lawfare’ against Donald Trump, but Megyn noted Bannon was one of the people in the former president’s orbit who was targeted as well. “What is happening to you is just mind blowing,” she said. “This is your last weekend to freedom. You are going to jail on Monday because of this criminal contempt finding against you.”
As Megyn explained, Bannon was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee tasked with investigating January 6 for documents and testimony. His lawyer argued before the Supreme Court in a last ditch appeal effort that he was relying upon the advice of counsel and waiting for issues of executive privilege to be settled before complying.
“Your understanding was that Trump had clearly asserted executive privilege, which is the president’s right – even, arguably, it was a point of contention over people who had formerly worked for him,” Megyn said. “That was ultimately rejected. You were willing to work with them. In any event, they said no, you got prosecuted, you got found guilty, and now you are going away for four months.”
To contextualize the unprecedented nature of the charges, Megyn noted that former Attorney General Eric Holder and current Attorney General Merrick Garland have each been found in contempt of Congress. In both cases, the Department of Justice decided against prosecuting the cases as a criminal matter. Bannon and other Trump allies have not been afforded that same application of the law.
The Sentence
As a result, Bannon is getting ready to report to Danbury Federal Prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Monday. “I believe, in our checkings, this has only happened twice in the history of our republic – once back in 1950 with a great writer, Ring Lardner, Jr… when he stood up against the House Un-American Activities Committee,” Bannon recalled. “He was sent to prison for a year. I’ve been ordered to prison for four months.”
A retired Naval officer, Bannon said he spent about four years on a Navy destroyer in the western Pacific and also in the North Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf during the Iranian hostage crisis. That experience readied him for this. “I’m fully prepared to go,” he shared. “We’ll just take it one day at a time.”
While he called the case a “political persecution,” he said he is not alone. “There are other people like the J6 guys, who, because of this bogus charge, have been in prison for years and held even before the court dates,” Bannon noted. “It’s the way they roll. If it has to happen, it has to happen… It’s God’s will.”
His Plan for Prison
Bannon believes that his sentence is an effort to “shut down” his voice and his Bannon’s War Room podcast, but he will not allow that to happen. “I will make sure that the War Room does not suffer at all,” he said. “I’m not taking any visitors. I’m not getting any mail… I’m not there to contemplate my future. I’m there to work hard every day to make sure President Trump gets back in… we take the Senate, we increase our percentage in the House, we take state legislatures, and we take school boards back.”
In the meantime, he said there has to be a “next man up” mentality. “People have to understand you can’t lean on Trump for everything. You can’t lean on, like, Rudy [Giuliani] or Tucker [Carlson] or Steve Bannon… or Megyn Kelly,” he said. “In this populist movement, if you don’t bind together and say, ‘We’re going to stop this madness, and we’re going to take this country back, and we’re going to restore this republic to our former glory,’ it’s not going to happen.”
Ultimately, Bannon sees this criminal process as another form of service. “I served my nation in the in my twenties as a Navy combatant, and I’ll serve it in a federal prison in my seventies,” he concluded. “If it happens, it happens.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Bannon by tuning in to episode 826 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.