Steve Bannon Sentencing Memo Cites Examples of Free Speech, Criticizing Democrats in Recommending Jail Time

Former President Donald Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon was ordered this week to report to jail on July 1 for four months for contempt of Congress, sparking renewed attention to the 2022 sentencing memo, which cites his exercise of free speech rights as part of the reason he should receive jail time.

The 24-page sentencing memo, authored by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, filed October 17, 2022, explicitly cites instances where Bannon criticized the case against him, which was brought after he did not comply with subpoenas to hand over documents and answer questions from the Democrat-run congressional committee created to examine the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.

Bannon was convicted by a jury in 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison and a $200,000 fine, but the sentence was paused as he appealed the decision. An appeals court recently upheld the conviction, and Bannon was ordered to report to jail in the beginning of July.

In the sentencing memo, Graves listed specific instances where Bannon in public remarks on his podcast, “War Room,” or during press conferences criticized Democrat public officials as reasons he should receive six months of jail time and the maximum fine possible:

The sentencing memo accused Bannon of exploiting “his notoriety” to display to the public the source of his “bad-faith refusal to comply with the Committee’s subpoena: a total disregard for government processes and the law.”

“Through his public platforms, the Defendant has used hyperbolic and sometimes violent rhetoric to disparage the Committee’s investigation, personally attack the Committee’s members, and ridicule the criminal justice system,” the memo said.

Graves said Bannon had called the case a “scam from the beginning,”

He wrote, “Rather than respect the criminal justice process and participate meaningfully and seriously in the courtroom defense of his case, for the Defendant, ‘going on offense’ meant resorting to name calling, mimicry, and menacing rhetoric aimed at the Committee’s investigation and its membership.”

Graves cited a remark from Bannon on June 15, 2022, where he left a motions hearing and said he looked forward to having “Nancy Pelosi, little Jamie Raskin, and Shifty Schiff in here at trial answering questions.”

Graves cited a July 12, 2022, episode of Bannon’s podcast where he told listeners to pray for “our enemies” because “we’re going medieval on these people; we’re going to savage our enemies”:

The district attorney cited Bannon accusing the then-January 6 Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-GA) of “hiding behind these phony privileges” and ridiculed him as “gutless,” said he was not “man enough” to appear in court, and mocked him as a “total absolute disgrace.”

Graves cited Bannon calling committee member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) “shifty Schiff” and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) “fang fang Swalwell” — a reference to the suspected Chinese spy Swalwell had a relationship with — and saying that “this show trial they’re running is a disgrace”:

Graves also cited Bannon calling the trial against him a “Moscow show trial of the 1930s.”

He said Bannon “proclaimed that he was going to ‘kill this Administration in the crib’ and that if the Department of Justice did not like it, it could ‘Suck on it. We’re destroying this illegitimate regime.'”

Graves dismissed Bannon’s right to free speech in the memo, writing, “The First Amendment, moreover, does not prohibit the evidentiary use of speech to establish the elements of a crime or 21 to prove motive or intent.”

He wrote that Bannon’s “constant, vicious barrage of hyperbolic rhetoric disparaging the Committee and its members, along with this criminal proceeding, confirm his bad faith,” which should be considered when sentencing.

“The Defendant’s contempt for Congress and its lawful authority continues to this day, and it was not an aberration,” Graves wrote.

“He has consistently and thoroughly opted for fealty to a personal agenda, rather than fealty to the rule of law and the basic obligations of citizenship in an orderly democratic society,” he added.

Graves suggested that the Court impose a sentence to “address” Bannon’s belief that he is “above the law” and stop his “contemptuous conduct.”

“And this Court’s sentence must provide a clear message to the Defendant that his contemptuous conduct stops here. Given this and all the other factors discussed herein, only a sentence at the top end of the Guidelines will be sufficient but not greater than necessary to accomplish this.”

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