Trump confidant Steve Bannon surrenders to federal prison

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Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to Donald Trump who remains one of his most ardent supporters, has turned himself in, becoming yet another associate of the former president to go to prison.

Bannon, a right-wing firebrand who helped build the Trump Maga movement, is set to spend four months in a federal prison in Connecticut after being convicted of contempt of Congress, accused of refusing to comply with a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.

Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, began serving his sentence after a long legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which rejected his appeal on Friday. He joins about a half-dozen Trump confidants who are serving time in prison.

Bannon has continued to deny the charges against him in recent days, calling himself a “political prisoner” wanted by a biased U.S. Justice Department that wants to silence the Maga movement.

“They think by going after me, they’re going to lock up one of President Trump’s top advocates,” Bannon said outside the prison Monday. “I’m proud to go to prison if that’s what it takes to stand up to tyranny.” Shouts of “lock him up” could be heard as he addressed supporters.

Bannon was officially arrested Monday morning, according to a statement from the Federal Bureau of Prisons released to The Associated Press.

Trump himself is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 for fraud in New York related to hush money payments to an adult film actress, though he is not expected to go to prison.

Other Trump associates who have been jailed include Peter Navarro, a former White House trade adviser who was jailed in March after being convicted of contempt of Congress on charges similar to those faced by Bannon.

Bannon’s imprisonment comes as the Supreme Court is set to rule on whether Trump is immune from criminal prosecution for actions he took as president, as he faces three separate indictments at the state and federal levels.

Carl Nichols, the judge presiding over Bannon’s contempt of court case, previously stayed his imprisonment while Bannon appealed it. But an appeals court earlier this year unanimously rejected Bannon’s claims, including that his conduct was “clearly authorized by government officials.”

Bannon’s legal team says he believed he was protected by Trump’s executive privilege, even though Bannon left his position as the then-president’s chief White House strategist in 2017.

Government lawyers argued that Bannon refused to cooperate with the committee even after Trump waived his claim to professional secrecy protections, adding that most of the evidence Bannon was asked to provide was not covered by professional secrecy.