Former U.S. President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—two of the world’s foremost anti-globalist politicians—have issued statements in solidarity with Steve Bannon after a judge slapped him with a four-month prison sentence in what has been widely regarded as a politically motivated case.
Bannon, at the request of Donald Trump, refused to comply with subpoenas related to the House select committee inquiry into the January 6th protests at the Capitol, citing that private conversations between him and the former president were protected by executive privilege, as The European Conservative previously reported.
For this, Bannon was charged with two counts of contempt of Congress in November of 2021.
President Trump, in a social media post that came earlier this week following Bannon’s sentencing, wrote: “Like so many others, Steve is fighting for his Country.” Alongside the post’s text, the former U.S. president shared an article, written by Gregg Jarrett, an author and attorney, that argues Bannon’s contempt case is likely to be thrown out.
In the piece, Jarrett writes:
When Bannon was subpoenaed by the J-6 Committee, Trump’s lawyer sent him a letter stating that the president invoked executive privilege and therefore directed him not to testify. Trump holds the privilege, not Bannon. Under law, Bannon cannot waive it or violate it. So, on the advice of his counsel, Bannon declined to testify. It was the correct advice.
But at trial, Judge Nichols applied the wrong standard on “willful” defiance of a subpoena. He relied on an outdated 61-year-old DC circuit court case (Licavoli v. U.S., 1961) that was based on a Supreme Court decision that was later repudiated by the high court and overturned. The correct standard, as the Supreme Court has since enunciated, is that prosecutors must show that the defendant knew his actions were unlawful. But if a defendant believes his response to the subpoena is lawful, then he cannot be convicted.
The same day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a longtime ally of both Trump and Bannon, took to social media to express his support for the former White House’s chief strategist.
“Politics can get ugly. I am sorry to see the political witch-hunt against a true American patriot, and a good friend, Steve Bannon. Keep on fighting, Steve! The truth will prevail!” Orban wrote on his new Twitter account, which in two weeks, has already racked up 85,000 followers.
Commenting on the statements issued by Trump and Orbán, Ben Harnwell, the European editor for Bannon’s WarRoom, said: “The two most important political leaders on the planet engaged in defending the Judeo-Christian West—and the hundreds of millions of people around the world who follow them—recognize the lawless Left’s brazen politicization of the judicial process. This is a process that has lost all legitimacy—and the reckoning is coming.”
