Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon released from prison

Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon has been released from prison after spending four months behind bars.

Bannon, 70, was released from a prison in Danbury, Connecticut, on Tuesday, Benjamin O’Cone, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, told the BBC.

Bannon, a conservative podcast host who played a key role in Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the investigation into the riots that took place on June 6. January at the Capitol.

According to the New York Times, after Bannon’s release, he said, “If people think American politics has been divisive before, you haven’t seen anything.”

Bannon is expected to host his “War Room” podcast on Tuesday and hold a news conference in New York.

Before he went to prison, Bannon consistently conveyed a message of loyalty to Trump and hostility to Democratic figures.

“I am a political prisoner of Nancy Pelosi, I am a political prisoner of Merrick Garland; I am a political prisoner of Joe Biden and the corrupt Biden establishment,” he said before going to prison.

He promised to continue helping Trump and his campaign from behind bars.

“I’ve been serving my country for the last 10 years with a focus on this,” he told the BBC before going to prison, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again policies and slogan. “If I have to do it in prison, I’ll do it in prison – it doesn’t matter.”

In May, a Trump loyalist claimed on his podcast that Democrats would “do anything to steal this election.”

He has repeatedly falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Bannon continues to face other legal issues – he was charged with money laundering, fraud and conspiracy in a separate New York state case in 2022.

He was accused of defrauding donors in a fundraiser that promised to build part of a wall on the US-Mexico border. Bannon pleaded not guilty to the charges.