Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, said the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) refusal to apply the First Step Act (FSA) good time credits accrued by Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist and host of the popular show War Room, towards an early release to home confinement, is “absolutely illegal.”
Bannon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Danbury, Connecticut, for a 2022 conviction on contempt of Congress charges for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 Select Committee.
On Monday, The Star learned that Bannon accrued 10 days of good time credit toward an early release from federal prison under the FSA, which means that the former Trump advisor could have been released to home confinement on October 19 instead of his scheduled release date of October 29.
However, the acting warden at the FCI in Danbury, Connecticut, has claimed insufficient time left in Bannon’s sentence to arrange a transfer to home confinement.
Citing The Star’s reporting, Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) sent a letter to the BOP director calling for the “immediate pre-release custodial arrangement” for Bannon “in compliance with the First Step Act.”
Ogles further accused the federal agency of “baselessly” extending Bannon’s sentence because of his “prominent role in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.”
While discussing Ogles’ letter sent to BOP Director Colette Peters demanding the immediate release of Bannon from federal prison, calling the situation “perhaps even illegal,” Leahy took the rhetoric a step further, declaring it “absolutely illegal.”
“[Ogles] said it was inappropriate and possibly illegal. I’m going to go one step further: it is absolutely illegal because they have refused to apply the provisions of the First Step Act to Stephen K. Bannon for one reason and one reason alone, because he is the most effective advocate for the America First movement and for the election of Donald Trump,” Leahy said during Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Leahy added that the refusal to release the former Trump advisor to home confinement is intentional, given that as the host of War Room, which boasts 1.02 million followers on Rumble, Bannon would have extra days to broadcast his pro-Trump message leading up to the November 5 general election.
“They’re playing games with Stephen K. Bannon. They want to lock him up. They don’t want his voice out there,” Leahy said.
“That’s what they fear,” Leahy added.
Watch the full segment:
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
