Steve Bannon, podcast host and former White House strategist to Donald Trump, was released from federal Bureau of Prisons custody on Tuesday. Sources told ABC News that Bannon was released from federal prison shortly after 3 a.m. Bannon had been serving his time served his time at FCI Danbury, a low-security federal correctional institution in Danbury, Connecticut.

Randilee Giamusso, a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, confirmed that Bannon was released; later in a post on X, Bannon said he had returned to hosting his “War Room” podcast, which aired later Tuesday morning.

Bannon, 70, was sentenced on two counts of contempt of Congress in Oct. 2022 for failing to comply with a subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, and served a four-month prison term, along with being fined $6,500. A U.S. district judge later agreed to postpone Bannon’s jail term while he appealed the decision, which was upheld by a federal appeals court in May 2024.

In the episode of Bannon’s podcast after his release Tuesday, he called himself a “political prisoner,” adding: “the four months in federal prison, not only didn’t break me, it empowered me. I am more energized and more focused than I’ve ever been in my entire life.”  He urged his listeners to vote, saying “everything is coming to fruition. We have to put this beyond their ability to steal it .. We have to crush them at the ballot box.”

Bannon’s legal problems are not over, however, as he was also charged and entered a not guilty plea in a separate New York State case in 2022.  Bannon is accused of defrauding donors to a “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign that promised to erect a portion of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with charges in that case include money laundering, conspiracy and fraud.

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