Steve Bannon is released from prison just in time for the run-up to Election Day last week

CNN
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According to a knowledgeable source, Steve Bannon was released from federal prison on Tuesday and returned to the helm of his weakened right-wing media platform just a week before Election Day.

Bannon, a right-wing podcast host and general manager of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, remains a staunch supporter of the former president. Even as he reported to federal prison in Connecticut in July, Bannon insisted that he would influence the presidential race from behind bars and that his “War Room” podcast would continue to energize the Trump base.

Bannon was received by his daughter Maureen early Tuesday morning. He is scheduled to host his radio show later Tuesday morning.

He was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House special committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He continues to appeal his conviction.

While in prison, Bannon maintained digital contact with a small group of loyalists, including some who served as guest hosts for the podcast, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Bannon spoke in part about daily news and politics, including topics he had been thinking about for the show.

However, Bannon's MAGA megaphone has suffered in his absence. “War Room,” which appeared frequently on Apple’s top podcasts before Bannon went to prison, disappeared from the charts in early July, according to Podchaser. According to Podchaser data, the podcast was once at the top of Apple's political podcast charts and has since fallen out of the top 25.

There are some signs that things are looking up slightly as Bannon prepares for his return.

“While we saw election denial activists still come into the show as a central hub, 'War Room' was unable to hold its own without Bannon,” said Madeline Peltz, deputy director of rapid response at Media Matters, a progressive nonprofit organization that conducts comprehensive media monitoring.

Peltz further predicted that Bannon would be a prominent vote for election denial if it became apparent that Trump would emerge shortly after Election Day.

“I think it will take some time to bring the audience back and mobilize,” Peltz said. “I don’t think the one week period until the election is enough time to complete this, but I really believe it will be in full swing in the post-election chaos we are all living in.”

While Bannon's show is viewed primarily as a galvanizer for the Trump base, data from Edison Research's podcast metrics found that nearly half of Bannon's audience was made up of Republicans, but about a third of listeners were independents.

On the “War Room” podcast, some replacement hosts cheered Bannon’s return.

Prominent election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell offered a deal on his MyPillow products (free pillows, plus shipping and handling, with the appropriate discount code) to mark Bannon's release.

“It will be less than 24 hours until Stephen K. Bannon is back a free man and preaching the MAGA gospel here in the 'War Room,'” Natalie Winters, one of the podcast's guest hosts, said Monday.

Winters then focused on the presidential race, claiming: “It's not an election, it's a campaign.” It's the kind of inflammatory rhetoric that Bannon embraced as an early voice of the “Stop the Steal” movement in 2020 and promoted.

In May, Bannon claimed on his podcast that “they will do anything to steal this election,” repeating the baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

“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.” “That is a grassroots reaction to these lies,” said Peltz of Media Matters. “There’s really no one else who has the same level of talent for this particular misinformation approach.”

To mark his release, Bannon's team plans to hold a news conference in New York on Tuesday afternoon.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN's Kristen Holmes, Maria Aguilar Prieto and Maria Sole Campinoti contributed to this report.