Former Trump administration White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told The National Pulse on Friday the Biden-Harris administration prolonged his prison sentence by failing to uphold the First Step Act of 2018, branding Vice President Kamala Harris the “mass incarceration queen” as her administration keeps a former adviser to her political opponent behind bars.
From the Federal Correctional Institute at Danbury in Connecticut, the former Trump adviser told The National Pulse, “The Harris Bureau of Prisons is illegally holding me past my legal release date–trying to eliminate one of President Trump’s strongest advocates–these criminals reek of desperation.”
He also told the outlet, “Kamala Harris is the ‘Queen of Mass Incarcerations’,” and claimed the Democratic nominee for president is “devastated” by her failure to secure the votes of black and Hispanic men.
Bannon predicted in his statement to The National Pulse, “Harris will lose this election on her inability to get black and Hispanic men to vote for her in Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Phoenix, and Las Vegas,” adding the Biden-Harris administration’s years spent “genuflecting to illegal alien criminals” while ignoring “family reunification of American citizen prisoners” is now “coming back to bite her.”
A source familiar with the situation told The Star News Network that Bannon is still scheduled to be released on October 29, but should have already been released due to sentence reductions implemented under the First Step Act, the criminal justice reform enacted under the Trump administration.
Publicly available information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) reveals the First Step Act includes a program to assign some elderly nonviolent offenders to home confinement. As his conviction was not violent in nature, Bannon seems to fit much of the criteria. The BOP considers inmates over 65 to be elderly, and Bannon is 70.
Bannon’s attorneys argued for a sentence modification to allow for supervised release in an August 29 legal filing that specifically sought changes in order for Bannon to receive good time credit under the First Step Act, potentially shaving days off his sentence.
As a nonviolent, first-time offender, it is unclear why Bannon was precluded from the criminal justice reform, which would normally allow inmates to earn up to 54 days per year toward a reduction in their sentence through good behavior and participation prison programs, as well as through a risk assessment performed by the BOP. Applying that standard to Bannon’s four month sentence, his release date should have been 18 days prior to October 29, or October 11, which was one week ago.
The court has yet to issue a ruling on Bannon’s request, despite only 11 days remaining in the former Trump administration official’s sentence.
Bannon was ordered to report to federal prison in June for a four month sentence after his appeals were rejected. He was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 after he defied a subpoena from the U.S. House select committee that investigated January 6. He ultimately entered FCI Danbury on July 1.
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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].
