Steve
Bannon, American right-wing ideologue and once-Donald Trump aide, was sentenced
to four months in prison on Friday and pay $6,500 in fines. Bannon was convicted
with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with the subpoena
issued by the House committee probing the Capitol riots that took place on
January 6, 2021.

Bannon’s
punishment, however, is suspended pending appeal.

The
68-year-old political strategist is the first person to be incarcerated for
contempt of Congress in more than half a century. However, the punishment was
less than what the prosecutors had sought. Prosecutors had called for a six
months prison sentence with a $200,000 fine.

Steve
Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to
comply with the select committee’s subpoena seeking documents and testimony.
This triggered the House of Representatives to refer him to the Department of
Justice (DOJ) for prosecution.

During the
court proceedings on Friday, Bannon remained stoic throughout, CNN reported.
After the sentencing, Bannon said, “I respect the judge, the sentence he came
down with, I’ve been totally respectful during this entire process on the legal
side.”

“Today was
my judgement day by the judge. And he stated for the appeal, and we’ll have a
vigorous appeals process. I’ve got a great legal team and there will be
multiple areas of appeal,” said Bannon.

He added
that the midterm’s will be judgement day for the Democrats – Joe Biden and Nancy
Pelosi.

Meanwhile,
David Schoen, Trump’s lawyer said, “We certainly fully respect the judge’s
decision. But we’ll be filing a notice of appeal as the judge indicated.”

“I’ve said
it before and I would confirm it, I believe that the appeal in this case is
bulletproof,” Schoen said, adding: “The Constitutional issues involved in this
case are very important, but Mr Bannon never got to tell the reason for his
actions with respect to the subpoena, never got to tell his story because the
government insisted from day one on prohibiting any mention and any evidence or
discussion to go before the jury as to why Mr Bannon reacted as he did to the
subpoena on the advice of counsel.”