Former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon was denied early release from prison due to “insufficient time” left on his sentence, despite being eligible for home confinement, according to the prison warden.
In a letter to Bannon’s attorney, Trent McCotter, Darek Puzio, who serves as the Acting Warden of the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, wrote that while Bannon had “earned” enough “First Step Act” time credits to be eligible for home confinement, he had “insufficient time” remaining on his prison sentence for a referral and approval to be processed.
Bannon, the host of the War Room podcast and the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, reported to prison at the beginning of July to begin his four-month prison sentence.
“FCI Danbury received your letter dated October 8, 2024, concerning your client, Stephen Bannon,” Puzio wrote. “Specifically, you request [for] your client’s immediate release to home confinement.
Puzio continued: “To date, Mr. Bannon has earned 10 First Step Act (“FSA”) time credits. These credits would typically be applied toward early transfer to supervision pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 3624 (g) (3). However, Mr. Bannon does not have a term of supervision following his term of imprisonment. Thus, his 10 FSA time credits can only be applied toward prerelease custody placement in a Residential Reentry Center or on home confinement.”
The First Step Act (FSA), which was signed into law under former President Donald Trump, “was the culmination of a bi-partisan effort to improve criminal justice outcomes, as well as to reduce the size of the federal prison population, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Bannon has insufficient time on his sentence to process a referral and secure approval for ten days of home confinement placement,” Puzio added in his letter. “The Regional Reentry Management Office overseeing your client’s release area advised their Residential Reentry Centers, which monitor home confinement placements, that they will not accept placements under 30 days.”
In response to Puzio’s letter on Monday, McCotter, and defense attorney Evan Corcoran, wrote in a letter that “the Court should grant Mr. Bannon’s motion” to either “reimpose bail or impose a period of supervised release.”
“The government provides no other reason for denying such a release,” McCotter and Corcoran added in their letter. “Accordingly, but for that bureaucratic processing delay, Mr. Bannon presumably would have been released to home confinement two days ago. There is no reason for Mr. Bannon to remain in prison despite earning those credits.”
On July 22, 2022, Bannon, who was hired to work as the CEO of the Trump campaign in 2016, was convicted by a jury of being in contempt of Congress.
Months later, Bannon was sentenced to serve a four-month prison sentence on two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the Democrat-run January 6 Select Committee that was formed to investigate the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
Bannon joined Trump’s administration as a chief strategist and left in August 2017, rejoining Breitbart News until he left in early 2018.
