Bannon was an officer in the United States Navy from 1977 to 1983, after which he worked for two years at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. In 1993, he became acting director of the research project Biosphere 2. He was an executive producer on 18 Hollywood films from 1991 to 2016. In 2007, he co-founded Breitbart News, a far-right[i] website which he described in 2016 as "the platform for the alt-right".[I]
In 2016, Bannon became the chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign[34][35] and was appointed chief strategist and senior Counselor to the President following Trump's election. He left the position eight months later and rejoined Breitbart. In January 2018, after his criticism of Trump's children was reported in Michael Wolff's book Fire and Fury, he was disavowed by Trump and subsequently left Breitbart.[36][37]
In August 2020, Bannon and three others were arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection with the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign. According to the grand jury indictment, Bannon and the defendants promised that all contributions would go to building a U.S.–Mexico border wall, but instead enriched themselves. Bannon pleaded not guilty.[42] On January 20, 2021, on his last day in office, Trump pardoned Bannon, sparing him from a federal trial.[43][44] Federal pardons do not cover state offenses, and in September 2022, Bannon was charged in New York state court on counts of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with the "We Build the Wall" campaign.[2][45]
In November 2020, Bannon's Twitter account was permanently suspended after he suggested that the federal government's infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray should be executed.[46]
Bannon was held in contempt of Congress in October 2021 after he refused to comply with a subpoena issued by the Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the 2021 United States Capitol attack. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on two criminal charges of contempt of Congress. In July 2022, he was convicted on both counts in a jury trial. He was sentenced in October 2022 to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine.[47][3][48][49] After losing his appeal, he was ordered to report to prison by July 1, 2024, unless the full appeals court takes the case and issues its own ruling to pause the sentence from being enforced.
^Davis, Mark (July 3, 2019). "A new, online culture war? The communication world of Breitbart.com". Communication Research and Practice. 5 (3). Routledge: 241–254. doi:10.1080/22041451.2018.1558790. S2CID159033173 – via Taylor & Francis.
Stokols, Eli (October 13, 2016). "Trump fires up the alt-right". Politico. Arlington, VA. Archived from the original on October 13, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2022. ... the unmistakable imprint of Breitbart News, the 'alt-right' website...
"The rise of the alt-right". The Week. October 1, 2016. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2020. Another major alt-right platform is Breitbart.com, a right-wing news site...
Rahn, Will (2016). "Steve Bannon and the alt-right: a primer". CBS News. Archived from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2020. Bannon's Breitbart distinguished itself from the rest of the conservative media in two significant ways this cycle... The second was through their embrace of the alt-right...
^Corn, David; Vicens, AJ (November 18, 2016). "Here's Evidence Steve Bannon Joined a Facebook Group That Posts Racist Rants and Obama Death Threats". Mother Jones. Archived from the original on February 1, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2018. This Facebook group is for an outfit called Vigilant Patriots, which claims its goals are defending and upholding the Constitution and preserving "our history and culture". As of Friday morning, it listed nearly 3,600 members, including Stephen Bannon, who apparently joined the group seven years ago.
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