Steve Bannon Denied Early Release Despite Qualifying Under ‘First Step Act’

Former Trump administration official Steve Bannon could get out of prison early thanks to a law popular among soft-on-crime Democrats — but the Biden-Harris administration won’t grant his lawyers’ appeal.

Congress passed the First Step Act in 2018 with bipartisan support, and former President Donald Trump signed it into law the same year. The Act, which allows certain offenders to apply for early release from prison, is popular among Democrats for who want to free drug dealers and other violent criminals.

Bannon — who reported to prison on July 1 for a four-month sentence after being convicted of contempt of Congress — “has accrued ten days’ worth of First Step Act credits,” his lawyers wrote in a Monday court filing reviewed by The Daily Wire. “Those credits mean that Mr. Bannon could have been released to home confinement two days ago on October 19, 2024,”

But the Bureau of Prisons declined to do so, saying there was “insufficient time” to “process” the request, the lawyers wrote. Bannon’s team said it first requested the release on August 29 and criticized a “bureaucratic processing delay.”

Bannon was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the Democrat-run committee investigating January 6. Democrats have defied subpoenas and not faced such punishment, and the refusal to grant Bannon early release may add to Bannon’s concerns that the Department of Justice has been weaponized against conservatives.

In documents released Monday by a Republican-led congressional committee, lawyers for a subpoenaed witness—the special prosecutor who prosecuted Trump in Georgia — openly told House Republicans they had no way to force him to testify fully, saying that the House did not have a jail and that criminal charges for contempt would rely on juries in Washington, D.C., where the electorate is overwhelmingly Democrat.

Darek Puzio, the acting warden of Federal Correctional Institution Danbury, wrote on Monday in a letter to Bannon’s attorney acknowledging that, “To date, Mr. Bannon has earned 10 First Step Act time credits.”

“Unfortunately, Mr. Bannon has insufficient time on his sentence to process a referral and secure approval for ten days of home confinement placement,” it said. “Accordingly, your client will be released on his full-term release date of October 29, 2024.”

Bannon appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court and said “I am proud to go to prison” if it is “what it takes to stand up to tyranny; if this is what it takes to stand up to the [Attorney General Merrick] Garland corrupt criminal DOJ.”

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