Stephen Kevin Bannon is an American media executive and political strategist who served as the White House’s chief strategist in the administration of former US President Donald Trump during the first seven months of Trump’s term.

He is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News, and previously served on the board of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.

Bannon was born on November 27, 1953. He was an officer in the United States Navy for seven years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After his military service, he worked for two years at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker.

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In 1993, he became acting director of the research project Biosphere 2. Bannon became an executive producer in Hollywood, and produced 18 films between 1991 and 2016. In 2007, he co-founded Breitbart News, a far-right website which he described in 2016 as “the platform for the alt-right”.

In 2016, Bannon became the chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and was appointed Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President following Trump’s election.

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He left the position eight months later, and rejoined Breitbart. In January 2018, Bannon was disavowed by Trump for critical comments reported in the book Fire and Fury, and left Breitbart.

After leaving the White House, Bannon opposed the Republican Party establishment and supported insurgent candidates in Republican primary elections.

Bannon’s reputation as a political strategist was questioned when former Alabama state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, despite Bannon’s support, lost the 2017 United States Senate election in Alabama to Democrat Doug Jones.

Bannon had declared his intention to become “the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement.”

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Accordingly, he has supported many national populist conservative political movements around the world, including creating a network of far-right groups in Europe.

In August 2020, Bannon and three others were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection to the We Build the Wall campaign.

The defendants allegedly enriched themselves, despite promising that all contributions would go to building a wall. Bannon pleaded not guilty and was pardoned by Trump before his trial date.

Recently, the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack voted to recommend the criminal prosecution of Bannon, after he defied a subpoena relating to their inquiry into the 6 January insurrection. The US House has voted to hold him in criminal contempt.

Bannon was convicted of contempt in July 2022 for ignoring a congressional subpoena from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurgency at the U.S. Capitol.

Bannon, 68, was convicted on two charges following a four-day trial in federal court in Washington: one for failing to attend a deposition and the other for failing to submit documents in answer to the committee’s subpoena. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for slightly over three hours.

He faces sentencing on October 21, where he could face up to two years in federal prison. Each count has a minimum prison term of 30 days.