Updated October 29, 2024 at 17:02 PM ET
Steve Bannon, the and one-time political adviser to former President Donald Trump, was released from federal prison Tuesday morning after serving four months behind bars for contempt of Congress.
Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts for defying subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. He left prison a week before Election Day, as Trump and Vice President Harris deliver their respective closing messages in a tight race for the White House.
Just hours after his release, Bannon returned to host a new episode of his daily podcast, 鈥淲ar Room.鈥� Dressed in a black shirt and with his gray hair slicked back, Bannon falsely claimed that former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent him to federal prison as a political prisoner 鈥渢o tamp down the power of this show and to break me.鈥�
鈥淔our months in federal prison didn鈥檛 break me. It empowered me,鈥� Bannon told his online audience. 鈥淚鈥檓 more energized and more focused than I鈥檝e been in my entire life.鈥�
Bannon echoed the false argument of other Republicans, including Trump, who accuse Democrats of weaponizing the Justice Department and the legal system against members of the party.
Bannon served his four-month sentence at the federal lockup in Danbury, Conn. Another former Trump aide, , also served four months in prison after being convicted of the same charges.
A variety of people filled in on the 鈥淲ar Room鈥� podcast while Bannon was in prison. He marked his return to the podcast with a fiery message for Trump鈥檚 supporters ahead of Election Day, telling them: 鈥淭his is a fight not simply for the direction of this country but what this country stands for.鈥�
Democrats, Bannon claimed, 鈥渉ave no intention of giving up power.鈥�
Trump鈥檚 supporters in Congress also have lobbed accusations of politicization against the Justice Department, pointing to the two federal indictments brought against the former president for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and for hoarding classified documents.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has rejected the allegations. In recent years, the department has twice indicted President Biden鈥檚 son, Hunter Biden, for gun and tax crimes; charged two Democratic members of Congress with corruption; indicted the Democratic mayor of New York City on corruption charges; and investigated the president himself over his handling of classified documents after his vice presidency.
At a news conference later in the day, Bannon said his immediate focus is getting Trump supporters to the polls before and on Nov. 5, and on ensuring "election integrity."
"My focus is on victory next Tuesday and the biggest number possible, because folks: don't think it's going to end on Tuesday," he said. "This is going to take a while to sort through."
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