The Tennessee Star obtained a letter Monday sent by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to attorneys representing Steve Bannon in which the federal agency acknowledged it is holding the former Trump White House chief strategist in violation of the First Step Act of 2018, as Bannon accrued 10 days of good time credit toward an early release.
The letter says, in part:
To date, Mr. Bannon has earned 10 First Step Act (“FSA”) time credits. These credits would typically be applied toward early transfer to supervision pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 3624 (g) (3). However, Mr. Bannon does not have a term of supervision following his term of imprisonment. Thus, his 10 FSA time credits can only be applied toward prerelease custody placement in a Residential Reentry Center or on home confinement.
According to attorney R. Trent McCotter, who represents Bannon: “Those credits mean that Mr. Bannon could have been released to home confinement two days ago on Oct. 19, 2024 (i.e., 10 days before the end of his sentence)—yet the BOP declined to do so, citing its view that there is ‘insufficient time’ remaining on Mr. Bannon’s sentence ‘to process’ the referral to home confinement.”
Bannon’s attorneys filed the letter as part of an effort to secure an earlier release, but it was sent to them by the acting warden at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Connecticut, where Bannon is serving a four-month sentence. He was convicted in 2022 of refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena from the House select committee that was investigating the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Acting Warden Darek Puzio wrote, “Mr. Bannon has earned 10 First Step Act (‘FSA’) time credits,” which the warden additionally acknowledged “would typically be applied toward early transfer to supervision,” but noted that Bannon was not sentenced to any form of supervised release.
According to Puzio, this means Bannon can use his credits, which the Bureau of Prisons typically calls good time credits, only to secure a transfer to home confinement for the remainder of his sentence.
However, the federal official claimed there is insufficient time left in Bannon’s sentence to arrange this and that the Bureau of Prisons division responsible for such arrangements “will not accept placements under 30 days.”
While confirming that Federal Correctional Institute Danbury and the Bureau of Prisons are willfully ignoring the good time credit accrued by Bannon, the warden nonetheless acknowledged that the former Trump adviser “will be released on his full-term release date of Oct. 29, 2024.”
In a legal filing containing the letter, Bannon’s attorneys argued that Puzio’s admission means the court should order Bannon “released immediately.”
This acknowledgment by Puzio and the Bureau of Prisons follows last week’s statement by Bannon that the Biden-Harris administration’s Justice Department was illegally holding him through its abandonment of the landmark civil justice reform signed into law by then-President Donald Trump.
“The Harris Bureau of Prisons is illegally holding me past my legal release date—trying to eliminate one of President Donald Trump’s strongest advocates—these criminals reek of desperation,” Bannon said in a written statement last week to The National Pulse.
[The Bureau of Prisons is part of the Justice Department.]
While Bureau of Prisons officials told The Tennessee Star on Monday that all prisoners are evaluated under the First Step Act, the Biden-Harris administration issued guidance earlier this month, when Forbes reported that its implementation of the civil justice reform “has been plagued with computer problems to calculate the credits, inconsistent interpretation of the First Step Act, and poor communication to the line staff at prisons who are tasked with implementing the programs.”
Bannon argued that the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to implement Trump’s criminal justice reform will cost Vice President Kamala Harris among black and Hispanic voters on Election Day.
“Harris will lose this election on her inability to get black and Hispanic men to vote for her,” said Bannon, after declaring that Harris “has done nothing to implement President Donald Trump’s heroic First Step Act, in fact welcoming hundreds of thousands of hardened illegal migrant criminals while allowing U.S. citizens eligible for early release to rot in prison.”
Originally published by The Tennessee Star
