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Bannon was Handed a Light Sentence by Trump-appointed Judge with a Right-Leaning Record [1]
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Date: 2022-10-22
In July, a jury in Washington D.C. required only a little over 2 hours to find Steve Bannon guilty of 2 counts of criminal contempt for refusing to comply with Congressional subpoenas regarding the January 6th investigation.
Throughout the investigation and trial, Bannon was defiant in his refusal to comply with his legal obligation to turn over information and testify. As the DOJ put it: “From the time he was initially subpoenaed, [Bannon] has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have [...] everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country's peaceful transfer of power. [… His] abject refusal to heed the Committee's subpoena, under the circumstances with which this country is confronted, could not be more serious”.
The judge in the case, Carl Nichols, noted “ In my view, Mr. Bannon has not taken responsibility for his actions”, “has expressed no remorse", and that “flaunting a Congressional subpoena betrays a lack of respect for the legislative branch which represents the will of the people of the United States".
During the the court's pre-sentencing investigation, Bannon refused to disclose any information about his finances, saying instead that he was willing and able to pay any fine imposed, including the maximum fine on each count of conviction.
Prosecutors argued that "for his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, [Bannon] should be sentenced to six months' imprisonment -- the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines' range -- and fined $200,000 -- based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office's routine pre-sentencing financial investigation".
Based on the above, the maximum sentence would seem to be a slam dunk, no? Remarkably, Judge Nichols imposed sentence of only 4 months (out of 6 months maximum) and $6,500 (out of $200,000 maximum) — and allowed Bannon to remain free pending appeal.
Given the judge’s own comments on the seriousness of Bannon’s conduct and his total lack of remorse, even the maximum penalty of 6 months seems woefully inadequate, so reducing the sentence even further is disturbingly generous. But what is especially egregious is Nichols’ assessing a fine of only 3% of the amount requested by the prosecution and agreed to by Bannon!
A quick look into the history of U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols perhaps sheds some light onto this confusing sentencing decision:
U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols Background
As a young lawyer, Nichols clerked for Clarence Thomas, and for Judge Laurence Silberman (Nixon/Reagan appointee, suspected of negotiating the Iran Hostage deal).
He Joined the DOJ under President G.W. Bush, and resigned when Obama became President.
Nichols was appointed by Drumpf as a U.S. District Judge in 2019
Some telling decisions by Nichols since becoming a federal judge include: U.S. v. Miller : In this Jan 6th prosecution, Nichols contradicted all 7 other U.S. District Court judges with similar cases, ruling that a higher standard was required to charge election obstruction. His lone ruling may undermine up to 275 similar cases and kick the issue to SCOTUS. Trump v. Committee on Ways and Means : Nichols issued a temporary restraining order barring New York from handing over Mar-a-Lardo’s tax returns to Congress. He was later forced to dismiss the matter, admitting he had no jurisdiction.
Nichols doesn’t quite rate an “Aileen Cannon” on The Slobfather judicial stooge scale (he ruled against TFG/allies in cases concerning TikTok and Dominion), but his background, combined with the nonsensical low-ball Bannon sentence, underscore ongoing concerns about the damage that appointments by Hair Furor have done to the independence of the judiciary.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/22/2130597/-Bannon-was-Handed-a-Light-Sentence-by-Trump-appointed-Judge-with-a-Right-Leaning-Record
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