Revoking of Steve Bannon's Bail Reckless

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)

This year, I added a D.C. Bar license to my quiver.

People used to breathlessly ask, “How can you do it?” Meaning, how can I work with defendants? You learn to think clearly and dispassionately, to come up with solutions.

We certainly expect that of our judges and juries. Like in The Godfather, “It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”

It seems that the people in the judicial system in D.C. have come to view themselves as having to uphold some sort of team: Democrats or Uni Party or even top of the cut-up cheese cubes cocktail party invite list vs. MAGA.

Dispassion and neutrality are gone. Through that lens, drawn-out trial schedules, inmates’ concerns and sentencing become a matter of finding the harshest option against the defendant available.

We see with the January 6 defendants, who’ve received harsher sentences and detention conditions than the Baltimore mugger who shoved a Glock in my ribs. The warden turned away members of Congress who came to inspect the detention facilities.

Cries for medication, religious accommodations, hygiene, regular meetings with counsel are ignored by the D.C. federal bench: “side of the angels” imposing pre-Enlightenment-style sentences.

And so, we get to the state of things with one of the most admirable men I’ve ever known, my friend — Steve Bannon. Anyone who listens to him on War Room or at his appearances around the world, just gets the teeniest surface scratch at his unfathomable breath and depth of knowledge of history, the arts, politics.

But I want to finally let everyone know what only a few top neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins, as well as my very closest friends already know. Last year, Steve saved my life. That’s not hyperbole, it’s scientific fact.

You may have seen the new PSAs: “Don’t mess with your melon — if you hit it, get it checked.” Last August, I was in a massive car crash.

It was a hot afternoon and I had a massive headache. I refused ambulance service when I found out that they would take me to a Baltimore hospital known for getting gang gun shot wounds and overdoses.

With no cuts, I’d be there half the night. Waiting for the tow truck in a dream-like state, I started taking pictures of the torn off frame with my treasured bumper stickers and figured Steve would like to see all that.

He asked if I was on the way to the hospital. I responded that I was mostly hot and thirsty with a sore neck and shoulder, as well as a terrible headache, that I just wanted to go home and lie down.

He didn’t think that sounded good and that I’d better get checked out. I said I was confused, I didn’t know what to do. He thought that was not normal and I had to go to urgent care.

Now. I realized I wasn’t thinking clearly, but was sure that he was. The urgent care folks and later, the top neurosurgeons at Johns Hopkins Hospital, all got wide Felix the Cat eyes when I told them my initial inclination was to just go home and go to sleep.

I was severely concussed with muscle tears and I had been in danger of brain bleed. “You might never have woken up!” one of the nurses exclaimed.

On June 4, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in D.C. granted the prosecution’s request for Steve to start serving his 4-month sentence that was imposed. The surrender date to jail is July 1.

Judge Nichols is a Trump appointee. Apparently, if the defense can earn a stay with the en banc roster of appeals judges or with the Supreme Court, that will stay the surrender.

The legal issue is both weird and complex: What does “willfulness” mean in the context of defying a Congressional subpoena when there is a colorable claim of executive privilege. Shades of Bill Clinton’s “It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.”

This is not a violent crime or one involving guns or state secrets. There’s no intrinsic rush or societal need for Steve Bannon to be incarcerated.

I tried to think, dispassionately — though it’s clear I am passionate about the subject — what would I do as a judge? I came up with a solution: no surrender date unless and until all stays are refused and certiorari not granted.

The problem is, other than President Trump, Steve Bannon is the most powerful voice and leader of the MAGA movement. We have the most critical election of our time a couple of days after the sentence would be completed.

We must ask ourselves: What can we do to carry this load, to win the trifecta: Presidency, Senate and House of Representatives?