Former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon, who helped efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, has been released from federal prison feeling ’empowered’.
Bannon, 70, left the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, on Tuesday morning after serving for four months for defying a subpoena in a congressional investigation into the January 6 Capitol riot.
The former White House chief strategist immediately said he would spend the remaining week until the US election helping the Republican candidate win.
‘I’m finally out of being a political prisoner. I think you can see today I’m far from broken,’ Bannon said in a press conference in New York City that afternoon.
‘I have been empowered by my four months at Danbury federal prison.’
Bannon said that being behind bars was empowering because of who he met there and what they said about Trump’s opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
‘I was able to listen, to observe and to learn from working-class minorities – young African American men and Hispanic men and yes, Puerto Rican men – about what their lives are,’ said Bannon, adding that they were against incarcerations under Harris and the Biden administration.
Bannon, who also returned to his popular War Room podcast earlier, accused former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of sending him to jail to silence him.
‘Nancy Pelosi thought a federal prison was going to break me,’ he said.
‘Well, it empowered me. I am more empowered today, more focused today, sharper today, in better shape today than I’ve even been in my entire life, so Nancy Pelosi, suck on that.’
However, it was a jury that convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to sit for a deposition with the House committee investigating the 2021 insurrection, and for refusing to provide documents on his role in Trump’s push to overturn the last election.
A judge sentenced Bannon and he went to prison on July 1.
Bannon reiterated the baseless claim that Trump had the 2020 election ‘stolen’ from him. He added that if the vote totals on this year’s election turn out similar to four years ago, Trump should do exactly as he did.
‘He should stand up and say: “Hey, I’ve won this. And we have teams right now that are going to make sure that this thing is not going to be stolen,”‘ Bannon said.
The right-wing strategist vowed to do all in his power to return Trump to the White House.
‘We’re going to secure this win. And Donald John Trump is going to serve his second term,’ he said.
‘And on the 20th of January at high noon, he’s going to put his hand on his family’s King James Bible, take the Oath, and we’re going to roll hard.’
After his press conference, Bannon walked away from the podium holding a bouquet of red roses that a woman gifted to him.
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