Former Trump administration White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told The National Pulse on Friday that the Biden-Harris administration extended his prison sentence by failing to uphold the First Step Act of 2018. He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as the “mass incarceration queen” for keeping 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 said the Democratic nominee for president is “devastated” by her failure to secure the votes of black and Hispanic men.
Bannon also made a big prediction: “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, a criminal justice reform enacted during the Trump administration. Publicly available information from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) indicates that the First Step Act includes a program allowing some elderly nonviolent offenders to be assigned to home confinement. Since Bannon’s conviction was not violent in nature, he appears to meet much of the criteria. The BOP considers inmates over 65 to be elderly, and Bannon is 70.
Bannon’s attorneys filed a motion for a sentence modification on August 29, specifically seeking changes to allow him to receive good time credit under the First Step Act, which could potentially reduce his sentence by several days. As a nonviolent, first-time offender, it is unclear why Bannon was excluded from the criminal justice reform, which typically permits inmates to earn up to 54 days per year off their sentence for good behavior and participation in prison programs, as well as through a risk assessment conducted by the BOP. Based on that standard, Bannon’s four-month sentence should have resulted in a release date 18 days earlier than October 29, specifically October 11, which was one week ago.
The court has not yet issued a ruling on Bannon’s request, even with only 11 days left in the former Trump administration official’s sentence. Bannon was ordered to report to federal prison in June to serve a four-month sentence after his appeals were rejected. He was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 for defying a subpoena from the U.S. House select committee investigating January 6. He ultimately entered FCI Danbury on July 1.
