Steve Bannon, adviser to Donald Trump and longtime media figure, has been indicted on two counts of contempt of Congress because of his refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, which the Justice Department calls a Capitol ”Breach.“

One contempt charge is for refusing to appear for a deposition and another is for refusing to produce relevant documents. Conviction on each charge carriers a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail and a bit of a slap-on-the-wrist fine — as little as $100 and no more than $1,000 for each.

The committee had said it had reason to believe Bannon, formerly a chief strategist for President Trump, had information relevant to its investigation. Bannon had not been a member of the administration since leaving the White House in 2017.

“Since my first day in office, I have promised Justice Department employees that together we would show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland Friday (Nov. 12). “Today’s charges reflect the department’s steadfast commitment to these principles.”

Bannon's media history, according to Brittanica.com, includes co-founding Bannon & Co., whose clients included MGM, Samsung and Polygram and which negotiated the sale of Castle Rock Entertainment, for which it received a stake in a number of TV shows including a then relatively new Seinfeld. Seinfeld has since been a gold mine in syndication, including for Bannon Inc.

Bannon became a Trump associate through his running of conservative/alt-right web site Breitbart.com, which he took over when his friend, Andrew Breitbart, died in 2012. Bannon backed Trump and was repaid by access to the president as senior counselor and chief strategist. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of only two GOP members of the Select Committee, said he hoped DOJ's action would encourage others to cooperate. “We just want answers,” he told CNN‘s Jake Tapper.

The House voted back in October along mostly party lines to indict Bannon for criminal contempt.

Bannon is no stranger to federal indictment. In August 2020 he was among a number of people arrested and indicted on charges they defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors to "We Build the Wall," a campaign to help build a wall on the southern border.

Former campaign manager and advisor to Donald Trump and ex and Breitbart News chief Steve Bannon was among a number of people arrested and indicted Thursday (Aug. 20) on charges they defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors to "We Build the Wall," a campaign to help build a wall on the southern border.

According to its Web site, the We Build the Wall campaign has raised $25 million from donors to date. Bannon is listed as chairman of the campaign's advisory board.

The charges were brought by the Department of Justice, specifically the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bannon is expected to appear before U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in the Southern District of New York Thursday.

“The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds," said Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett. "As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth. This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist.”

According to the indictment, Bannon, "through a non-profit organization under his control received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which [he] used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses."

The case is being handled by Justice's Public Corruption Unit, with assistant U.S. Attorneys Nicolas Roos, Alison G. Moe, and Robert B. Sobelman heading up the prosecution.

A new group called the Coalition Against Hate, which includes the National Hispanic Media Coalition, is taking aim at the incoming Trump Administration with plans to push "media platforms" to "abandon hate speech as a model," it said.

The coalition said it will warn of the dangers of using the "alt-right" label to describe what it said is actually white supremacy, and that it will take issue with Trump appointees and staffers.

The candidate himself has broad-brushed Mexican immigrants as rapists and Muslims as potential terrorists and his tapping of Stephen Bannon of the Breitbart news site drew a firestorm of criticism from those who see that site, and Bannon, as facilitating hate speech..

There have been past efforts to get the FCC to crack down on "hate speech" that incites violence.

Network-neutrality fan Demand Progress is raising money for a campaign to preserve the FCC's rules in the face of what the group anticipates will be a rollback from the Trump Administration.

In an e-mail soliciting donations, the group points to a Breitbart News headline: "Trump Win Means FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Regulation is Dead," noting that the man behind the ultra-conservative news website, Steve Bannon, is now President-elect Donald Trump's chief strategist.

"To save net neutrality, we're going to need a grassroots mobilization as big as what it took to enact it in the first place," Demand Progress said.

"The good news is that Trump can't just get rid of net neutrality on his own," the group added. "He's going to have to go through a lengthy rule-making process, giving us months to mount opposition."

The top contenders for new FCC chair are said to be current senior FCC Republican commissioner Ajit Pai and American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Jeffrey Eisenach, neither of which are fans of Title II reclassification.