Trump advisor and convicted grifter Steve Bannon was sentenced to 4 months in jail and fined $6,500 Friday by federal Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, after being found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress, NBC News reports.  Nichols commented that Bannon “has not taken responsibility for his actions.”

Prosecutors sought a six-month prison sentence and a $200,000 fine, saying the right-wing blowhard claimed executive privilege as a fraudulent way to avoid testifying before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and reinstall Donald Trump to a second term, something Bannon had been advocating for months prior to the election.  Instead of appearing before the committee or sending a letter to Congress to assert his claim of privilege, Bannon simply didn’t respond to the subpoena.  Trump eventually dropped fallacious potential claims of executive privilege concerning the testimony of various people including Bannon, but Bannon persisted in making the claim.

“The government further argues that Mr. Bannon has not expressed remorse and has attacked the select committee at every turn. On this point I agree with the government,” Nichols says. “He has expressed no remorse for his actions.”

Noted for his perpetual unkempt appearance, donning multiple shirts at once, and his overwhelming desire to empower a far-right government run by white men who have little regard for civil liberties, the one-time presidential advisor now hosts a podcast in which he spews hate speech and misinformation to promote his fascistic views.

Bannon’s lawyers have advocated that Bannon does not deserve a harsh sentence or even jail time because, they falsely claim, the statutes do not have a minimum jail sentence; in fact, the minimum sentence stated in the judicial sentencing guidelines is one month in jail and recommended sentencing guidelines are one- to six-months in jail.  Defense counsel claimed that Bannon merited a slap on the wrist because he never challenged the fact that he violated the law, but that he questioned the legitimacy of the charge itself claiming that his assertion of executive privilege, which has been laughed out of courts, overrides the charge.

While Bannon was a member of the Trump administration for approximately 19 Scaramuccis (or seven months) in 2017, he was not part of the government at the time of the 2020 election or the subsequent conservative insurrection, making a claim of executive privilege spurious.  Also, there’s the small fact that executive privilege does not apply when discussing criminal activity.

Bannon’s incarceration is delayed pending appeal.