Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon released from prison | Donald Trump news

At the end of his four-month term for contempt of Congress, Bannon said: “I am not broken, I am strengthened.”

A former Trump strategist who was jailed for defying a congressional subpoena to testify about the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been released from prison.

Steve Bannon, 70, a right-wing media executive and former Trump strategist, completed his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress early Tuesday.

Speaking to The New York Times outside a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, Bannon said: “I am not broken, I am strengthened.”

Much has changed in the four months since Bannon's incarceration: President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and his Vice President Kamala Harris took over the Democratic nomination for president.

Now, with just a week to go before Election Day, Bannon is expected to use his influence and media savvy to rally the Republican presidential candidate's die-hard base.

Although Bannon no longer works for Trump, he has continued to amplify the former president's message through his podcast, “The War Room.” He is expected to appear on the show Tuesday morning and hold a press conference in New York that afternoon, Axios reported.

“Bannon is one of the most talented broadcasters among his colleagues when it comes to taking current events, extracting a kernel of truth from them, and then spinning an elaborate conspiracy theory about it that then becomes the fuel for the resulting action.” “The Protests are being taken up by the grassroots in response to these lies,” Madeline Peltz, deputy director of rapid response at left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters, told CNN.

“There’s really no one else who has the same level of talent for this particular misinformation approach.”

A decade before joining Trump's 2016 campaign, Bannon co-founded Breitbart News, which he viewed as a “platform for the alt-right.” Bannon served as Trump's chief White House strategist in 2017, but left the White House after just seven months, reportedly due to conflicts with other top aides.

In 2020, he was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges for misusing millions of dollars donated by donors to build a border wall with Mexico.

While others were found guilty in the scheme, Trump gave Bannon a blanket pardon before leaving office in January 2021, leading to the charges being dismissed.

That same month, Bannon used his influence to support Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. The day before the attack on the capital on January 6, he warned: “Tomorrow all hell will break loose.”

If Trump loses the election again, Pelz at Media Matters believes Bannon could amplify the claims and deny the election results again.

“I really think it's going to be in full swing in the post-election chaos that we're all anticipating,” he told CNN.

Despite his beliefs, Bannon should be eligible to vote in New York, where he has registered in the past.

A New York law passed in 2021 restored the right to vote to a person convicted of a felony upon their release from prison, regardless of whether they are on probation or under post-release supervision.

Other states, such as Florida, where Bannon also previously registered to vote, have rules that make it more difficult for convicted felons to have their constitutional right to vote restored.