r/news • u/Traveler606 • 4d ago

Steve Bannon must report to prison by Monday after Supreme Court rejects last-minute appeal

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/steve-bannon-must-report-prison-monday-supreme-court-rejects-last-minu-rcna158584
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313

u/tequilavip 4d ago

Spoiler: he absofuckinglutely will not present himself to be incarcerated.

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u/IgnoreKassandra 4d ago

Eh, it's 4 months. Dude's not throwing away his life over less than a year in a cushy rich guy prison.

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u/rabidstoat 4d ago

Though he does have a NY state trial starting up in September.

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u/divDevGuy 3d ago

in a cushy rich guy prison

Please point to any federal prison where life is "cushy". Maybe his stint in FCI Danbury will be cushy compared to Florence, Levenworth, or Angola, but even a non-cushy life on the outside is better than whatever life is on the inside.

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u/IgnoreKassandra 3d ago

Well no shit it's worse than being free, but the nicest minimum security federal prisons are pretty nice. Tons of prisoner freedom of movement, gym facilities and sport courts, TVs, ipads, pretty good food, interesting classes in things like horticulture or cosmetology (actual classes Martha Stewert took in federal prison), etc. You can whittle away 4 months in one and it's not some great and terrible nightmare.

Here's a Forbes article literally titled "America's 10 Cushiest Prisons".

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh 2d ago

throwing away his life

Simply not showing up and waiting to be arrested wouldn't be throwing away his life, would it? Would it incur extra penalties?

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u/IgnoreKassandra 2d ago

I mean, if you run you can never come back to America or any country that extradites, which is like almost all of the good ones, and of the ones you might want to live in as a rich guy (China, Russia, Taiwan), none of them are going to let you immigrate as a convicted felon with a warrant out.

If you do manage to get out, you can never go to any of the places you love, and if you want to visit any of your friends or family, you have to fly them across the planet. I don't know about you, but if it were me, I'd probably just do an easy 4 months in club fed taking it easy in a prison full of other white collar criminals while we all take pottery classes and watch TV all day than become a lifetime fugitive from the law who can never return to his home country.

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh 2d ago

I get that part. I wasn't thinking of him running, just going about his life as usual until he actually gets picked up, knowing that it will happen, just later.

At least in Germany, you (technically) don't get an extra punishment for that (but you do ruin your chances of getting some programs like work release etc).

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u/IgnoreKassandra 2d ago

Oh, okay, yeah of that I'm not sure but I feel like it's gotta right? It's probably not "ruin your life" level, but I feel like if it was no big deal more people would do it...

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh 2d ago

The built in, natural consequence is that you can't plan for when it happens.

For normal people who have jobs, rented houses, and not enough savings to cover however long they go away for, there is much more value in being able to get your shit in order (put your belongings into storage, cancel subscriptions, maybe make an arrangement with your boss to hire a temp and hold your job for when you get out) than in delaying the inevitable while never knowing when you'll suddenly disappear.

But for someone who doesn't have any obligations to worry about, hoping that his extremely well paid lawyers will still find a loophole...

I don't know how quickly this usually happens and I suspect this being such a prominent case makes it unlikely that it will sit around for months, but doesn't he also have a hope of getting pardoned after the election? Another possibility could be him also going on a six-month vacation, changing countries often enough that by the time someone has done the extradition paperwork, he's in the next country.

If a presidential pardon is possible for this conviction, he might just need to hold out until January.