Steve Bannon Compares His Prison Sentence to His Navy Service: ‘Just as Proud to Serve My Nation as a Political Prisoner’ | Video
Former Donald Trump political strategist Steve Bannon is set to go to prison next month for defying a Congressional subpoena from the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 Committee. He told Tucker Carlson that he feels his prison sentence is an opportunity to “save his country.”
“In my twenties I served my country on a Navy destroyer, and in my seventies I’ll serve my country in a federal prison. It doesn’t make any difference to me. It won’t change my life in one way,” Bannon said in a Tuesday interview with Carlson.
Bannon was convicted in federal court in October 2022 on two counts of contempt after refusing to provide testimony or paperwork to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Last week, Bannon was ordered by the court to report to prison July 1 for his four-month sentence, following his appeals failing. Bannon said that he remains dedicated to the task of saving his country, no matter the cost.
“If I have to be a political prisoner, I’ll be a political prisoner,” he told Carlson. “I don’t bat one eye. Whatever it takes to win this revolution, we’ve got to do.”
Bannon argued in court that Trump exercising executive privilege protected him from disclosing documents and providing testimony for the House committee. Executive privilege is the legal doctrine permitting the president to withhold information from the public under certain circumstances. Bannon took issue with the three-judge panel’s unanimous ruling stating that he could not rely on executive privilege, as well as the structure of the House Committee itself.
“Regardless of what it costs, I’m prepared to go to the Supreme Court on the executive privilege,” Bannon said, emphasizing that he pays his legal fees completely out of pocket and hasn’t sought outside funds. “The most important [issue] to me still is the structure of this committee — was it a legitimate committee?”
In an emergency filing Tuesday, Bannon and his team requested for his prison start date to be dropped so that he can “vigorously pursue his remaining appeals.” Bannon is seeking a ruling on this request by June 18, just two weeks before his prison sentence is set to begin. He again emphasized that his team is ready to take the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.
“We’re being oppressed by an illegitimate regime that usurped power here, and that’s what we have to break,” Bannon stressed to Carlson. “Our country are the guys that listen to you and support you.”
Watch the full interview with Steve Bannon in the video at the top of this story.
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