Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) demanded the release of former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in a Thursday letter to Biden-Harris administration Bureau of Prisons (BOP) director Colette Peters that was obtained by The Tennessee Star.
Ogles accused the federal agency of “willfully facilitating the political persecution of the Democrat Party’s political opponents,” through its refusal to apply the First Step Act (FSA) good time credits accrued by Bannon, and demanded Peters take immediate actions to secure the former Trump adviser’s early release from prison.
The Tennessee congressman sent the letter after The Star obtained a confirmation from the acting warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, acknowledging Bannon accrued good time credits that would ordinarily be applied toward supervised release or home confinement under the FSA, the Trump-era criminal justice reform.
Acting Warden Darek Puzio acknowledged Bannon’s good time credits in his Friday letter Bannon’s attorneys, but declared them moot due to the short amount time left on the former Trump official’s sentence.
Bannon was convicted in 2022 after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated January 6.
Ogles wrote in his Thursday letter to Peters, “Despite retaining eligibility for home confinement, the Bureau of Prisons chose nto to ensure a just, post-incarceration placement outcome for Steve Bannon,” and accused the federal agency of “baselessly” extending Bannon’s sentence because of his “prominent role in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement,” before referencing reporting about Bannon’s incarceration by The Star:
In a letter obtained by the Tennessee Star on Monday, the Bureau of Prisons acknowledged that Steve Bannon would not be afforded the 10 days of good time credit he is entitled to under the First Step Act, as the Regional Reentry Management Office maintains it cannot process home confinement placements in under 30 days. While this bureaucratic explanation may be sufficient for an oftentimes complacent legacy media, millions of Americans will nevertheless see through this disingenuous explanation and raise questions as to why the Bureau is unnecessarily – and perhaps even illegally – imprisoning Mr. Bannon until only days before the 2024 general election.”
Ogles ultimately accused the federal agency of failing to uphold the FSA during Bannon’s prison sentence, and demanded cooperation in arranging the former Trump adviser’s immediate release.
“Your agency could have assisted Mr. Bannon and his team in securing a pre-release custodial arrangement; instead, for reasons we could only hope to chalk up to the typical incompetence of the Washington bureaucrat, he is now being forced to forego a benefit afforded to him under the law,” wrote Ogles.
He concluded by noting his expectation of Peters’ “full cooperation in facilitating the immediate pre-release custodial arrangement for Mr. Bannon, in compliance with the First Step Act.”
The Star contacted Peters on Thursday to ask whether she intended to comply with Ogles’ letter, but did not receive an immediate response.
Bannon, without action from Peters, remains scheduled to be released from prison on October 29, just six days before Election Day.
Read the letter:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rep. Andy Ogles” by Rep. Andy Ogles.
