Tag: steve bannon
Steve Bannon

Released From Prison (For Now), Bannon Resumes Spewing Of Election Lies

Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released from a federal prison on Tuesday. Bannon served four months after being convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in October 2022.

The right-wing podcast host served his time after numerous appeals and rejections, including the Trump-friendly Supreme Court’s June decision to deny another request to delay his prison sentence.

Bannon couldn’t stay out of prison despite being the beneficiary of one of the sloppy pardons Trump handed out at the end of his term in office. He was indicted on federal charges of fraud and conspiracy alleging that he and other organizers of the “We Build the Wall” nonprofit used donor money to enrich themselves instead of actually building a wall along the southern border of the United States. Bannon is still facing similar fraud charges from Manhattan prosecutors.

The Trump loyalist was back to promoting conspiracy theories on his “War Room” podcast just hours after his release on Tuesday. Whether it’s peddling 2020 election lies or ruminating about far-out theories involving ”deep state” psychological operations involving pop star Taylor Swift, Bannon’s podcast is the place where he and people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene can peddle conspiracy theories about a murky “globalist elite.”

CNN reports that Bannon's podcast has diminished in popularity during his absence, and even a revolving crew of MAGA celebrity hosts including fellow ex-Trump adviser (and ex-convict) Peter Navarro hasn't done much for its ratings. And while many believe Bannon’s show will likely recover now that their No. 1 trainwreck is back at the helm, a spike in ratings might not be enough to have any impact on an election that is only one week away.

“I think it’s going to take some time to bring the audience back and to mobilize them,” Madeline Peltz, deputy director for rapid response at Media Matters, told CNN. “I don’t think the one-week period between now and the election is enough time to complete that, but I think really, you’ll see it kick into high gear in the post-election chaos that we’re all sort of anticipating.”

Bannon’s New York trial for his border-wall fraud was delayed while he served his prison time and is set to begin in December. Thoughts and prayers.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Bannon Reportedly Has Taped Interviews With Jeffrey Epstein -- On Subjects Including Trump

Bannon Reportedly Has Taped Interviews With Jeffrey Epstein -- On Subjects Including Trump

Steve Bannon, who was former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist in 2017, reportedly has over a dozen hours of interview footage with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein that has yet to see the light of day.

Business Insider reported Wednesday that questions are still lingering about when Bannon's footage with the Trump-adjacent multimillionaire financier — who pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008 — will ever be seen by the public. Mark Epstein, who is Jeffrey's brother, told the outlet that Bannon's documentary was meant to "rehabilitate [Jeffrey's] reputation" after the Miami Herald published accounts from Epstein's alleged victims in 2018. The Herald's coverage ultimately resulted in Epstein getting indicted for sex trafficking of minors in Manhattan.

"[Bannon] told me he had like 16 hours of videotaping with Jeffrey in his vault," Mark Epstein said. "And he told me it was protected because it was witness preparation and it was protected under attorney-client privilege. But the thing is, Bannon's not an attorney."

The documentary is entitled "The Monsters: Epstein's Life Among the Global Elite," and was filmed in Epstein's homes in both Manhattan and Paris, France. Mark Epstein said Bannon asked him for $6 million to complete the documentary, but he turned him down. None of the footage has been seen by anyone — not even by prosecutors or witnesses in the trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for helping Epstein procure young girls for sex.

Jeffrey Epstein was a longtime friend of Trump in the 1980s and 1990s when he was a Manhattan real estate mogul. However, Mark Epstein said his brother relayed to him that he "stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook."

In September of 2021, Bannon told the Daily Mail tabloid that his interviews with Epstein were part of "a planned 50 hours of open ended no holds barred interviews with Epstein for a 8 to 10 hour expose on his deep relationships with the global elites in finance, science, education, medicine, politics and culture."

That December, Bannon spokeswoman Alexandra Preate said the documentary would likely be released by Labor Day of 2022, though that day came and went with no additional word about when "The Monsters" would be released. Preate has reportedly been unresponsive to inquiries about the footage.

Jeffrey Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial. A New York medical examiner's report found that Epstein died by suicide from hanging. The facts surrounding Epstein's death are the subject of numerous conspiracy theories, given that his cellmate was transferred out the day before his death, the two men tasked with guarding him left him alone and that there was no video available of Epstein's hanging despite multiple surveillance cameras in the vicinity.

The DOJ's Office of the Inspector General released a lengthy report detailing the multiple breakdowns in security that took place the night of Epstein's death. His brother told Business Insider that he felt the report was "blatant bulls—."

Epstein's 2008 plea deal, which was regarded as unusually light given the severity of the crime, was arranged by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, whom Trump appointed as Secretary of Labor in the early days of his administration. Acosta resigned after the Herald's article series about Epstein and the additional allegations against him — including that he had as many as 200 victims.

Bannon is currently serving a federal prison sentence for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena. He is due to be released in November.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Bannon Sweating Over July 1 Incarceration With 'Dangerous Criminals'

Bannon Sweating Over July 1 Incarceration With 'Dangerous Criminals'

Steve Bannon — former President Donald Trump's chief White House strategist — will report to federal prison on Monday. And according to a recent report, he's quietly fretting about the people he'll be with while incarcerated.

The Daily Beast reported that an unnamed source close to Bannon said the far-right activist is "quite concerned" about the fellow inmates he'll encounter throughout his four-month federal prison sentence at FCI Danbury, in Connecticut. Bannon, whose Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate number is 05635-509, will notably have a tougher time than fellow Trump advisor Peter Navarro, who is at a federal prison camp in Florida.

According to the Beast, Navarro's camp is "much less strict on inmates" and his biggest concerns are likely "boredom and slow communications." Bannon, on the other hand, has a separate criminal detainer for allegedly defrauding supporters of an online crowdfunding campaign to build a wall along the Southern border, for which he is still awaiting trial in Manhattan. Because of that, Bannon's sentence will be served in a harsher environment.

One of the Beast's unnamed sources told the publication that Bannon "will be on a more rigid day-to-day schedule that has less freedom of movement, stricter check-ins and will be surrounded by more dangerous criminals." Reporter Josh Fiallo noted that FCI Danbury's inmate population of roughly 800 prisoners includes "sex offenders and violent criminals."

The 70-year-old Bannon has maintained that he is a "political prisoner" and that his "voice will not be suppressed" despite being behind bars. His podcast co-host, Mike Davis, recently said Bannon is "unfazed and determined." The former Trump advisor and Breitbart News chief vowed that he would be working toward "total and complete victory" during his prison sentence.

Bannon was initially found guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack and initially sentenced in 2022. However, he fought the imposition of his sentence for more than two years, initially succeeding in staying out of prison as he made his way through the appeal process. The Supreme Court finally issued a one-sentence ruling on Friday that Bannon would have to report to prison.

"If it took me going to prison to finally get the House to start to move, to start to delegitimize the illegitimate J6 committee, then, hey, guess what, my going to prison is worth it," Bannon told ABC's Jonathan Karl earlier this week.

Bannon reportedly hired prison expert Sam Mangel — who was also hired by Navarro — to help him prepare for his sentence. Mangel, who himself served a 60-month federal prison sentence for financial crimes, told the Beast earlier this month that federal prison is no picnic for a first-time inmate. When speaking to the hypothetical situation of Trump potentially being incarcerated, Mangel said the experience would be "humiliating" and "degrading" for the ex-president.

"Inside you get up at six in the morning, you go to your meals as dictated, you get the same phone time, the same lights out at four o’clock in the afternoon, you have to stand next to your bed for count,” he said. “So it is a humiliating situation. And especially for somebody like the former president."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Debate Jitters: Trump Aides Fear Ex-President Is 'Walking Into A Trap'

Debate Jitters: Trump Aides Fear Ex-President Is 'Walking Into A Trap'

Some of President Joe Biden's supporters have been arguing that he never should have agreed to debate presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, but other Biden supporters don't see it that way at all — stressing that Trump would have attacked Biden as weak had he not agreed to a debate. Moreover, they add, Biden has repeatedly demonstrated over the years that he can be a tough, forceful debater.

Meanwhile, far-right War Room host Steve Bannon, according to Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman, is saying that Trump, not Biden, is the one who has the most to lose during the Thursday night, June 27 debate — which is being moderated by CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in Atlanta.

"According to two sources," Sherman reports, "Steve Bannon has told people Trump should never have agreed to debate. One of the sources told me Bannon explained that if Biden bombs the debate, Democrats will find a way to replace Biden on the ticket — a scenario (Trump senior adviser Jason) Miller shot down — and if Biden performs well, the race becomes even closer. Bannon declined to comment."

Miller, however, did comment on the June 27 debate, claiming that the format will be unfair to Trump.

Miller told Vanity Fair, "It's a three-on-one dynamic with Biden, Tapper and Bash. The structure makes it impossible for President Trump to get a fair shake."

After spending months falsely claiming that Biden is senile, Trump's supporters have come up with a new line of attack to explain his aggressive speeches on the campaign trail and during the 2024 State of the Union address: claiming that the 81-year-old president is using some type of drug to make himself appear more energetic — a claim there is zero evidence to support.

"A strong showing by Biden will neutralize Trump's claims about his opponent's cognitive decline," Sherman explains. "The Trump campaign knows this."

Sherman continues, "That's why, in recent days, Trump and his aides have been working overtime to mitigate the damage should Biden deliver a commanding performance similar to his fiery State of the Union address…. Trump wants to keep up the attacks on Biden's age while also explaining away a potentially strong performance from Biden. Some in Trumpworld are worried Trump is walking into a trap."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

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