What happened to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon? The War Room podcaster is currently serving time in prison, so invited Osama bin Laden’s niece and Rudy Giuliani’s son to guest host his show

Here’s what you need to know about the Maga firebrand.

What is Steve Bannon behind bars for?

On July 1, Bannon reported to Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut to begin a four-month sentence for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas in relation to the January 6 riots on the US Capitol in 2021. According to CNN, the January 6 committee was interested in communications between Bannon and Trump from December 2020, as well as comments Bannon made on a podcast that aired the day before the riots in which he said, “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow”.

The committee investigating the riot wanted details from him on those conversations and the context for his comments on the podcast, but Bannon had repeatedly refused, citing “executive privilege” invoked by Trump. However, the committee claim that the privilege never allowed Bannon the freedom to ignore the subpoena in the first place, so in 2022, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress and sentenced to prison by federal judge Carl Nichols.

Prison drama

This is Steve Bannon we’re talking about, so not only did he livestream the ride to prison on his War Room podcast, but had arranged a podium for a planned speech, in which he said he was “proud” to go to prison.

The future of the War Room podcast

Ups and downs in the Trump relationship

However in 2017, Bannon featured on the cover of Time magazine as “The Great Manipulator” and was touted as the “second most powerful man in the world”, which didn’t go down well with the then-president, per CNN. Not long afterward, negative stories about other staffers were leaked to the press, which many believed to be Bannon’s doing, and he was subsequently cut out of Trump’s inner circle. Trump later said that when Bannon was fired, “he not only lost his job, he lost his mind”.

Fast forward to last year – when Trump’s legal troubles were mounting – and Bannon’s persistent vocal defence of the former president on his podcast reportedly returned him to Trump’s good graces.

Life in prison

Danbury Federal Correctional Institution is a low-security correctional facility in Connecticut that, according to CNN, is primarily populated with white collar criminals. The prison’s website says it houses just over a thousand inmates, both male and female, who CNN reports have no access to the internet. However, while emails can occasionally be sent, they are monitored and attachments are not permitted. Inmates are also reportedly not allowed to operate a business whilst imprisoned.

CNN also details the fact that Bannon would have had to pass through a metal detector, been strip-searched and had his mental health evaluated as part of inmate protocol.