NEW YORK (AP) – Longtime ally of Donald Trump Steve Bannon was released from federal prison early Tuesday and immediately resumed his wholehearted support for the former president, urging Republicans to mobilize in large numbers. next week to defeat Democratic vice president nominee Kamala Harris.

Bannon served a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena as part of the Congressional investigation into the matter Attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He left the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, before dawn and headed to Manhattan, where he resumed his WarRoom podcast and online show and later held a conference press conference in the afternoon.

“I am finally no longer a political prisoner,” Bannon said at the media event, saying prominent Democrats were hoping to break him. “I think you can see today that I am far from broken. I was empowered by my four months in Danbury Federal Prison.

The experience was enriching, he said, because of the people he met and what they had to say about Harris.

“I was able to listen, observe and learn from working-class minorities — young African-American and Hispanic men and yes, Puerto Rican men — about what their lives are like,” Bannon said, saying his fellow inmates took a weak view of Harris and the Biden administration’s record on incarceration.

He also reiterated his unfounded claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump and said he spoke with the former president on Tuesday, although he declined to provide details. Judges, election officials, cybersecurity experts and Trump’s own attorney general have all rejected his claims of massive 2020 voter fraud.

Bannon said similar things about the election and his time in prison on his podcast and web show earlier today. He criticized the Democrats and their agenda, saying that Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives sent him to prison to silence his voice – although a jury found him guilty and a judge who sentenced him.

Bannon, 70, reported to prison on July 1 after the Supreme Court rejected his attempt to delay his prison sentence while he appeals his conviction.

A jury declared Bannon guilty in 2022, of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a testimony before the House committee on January 6 and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturning his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

A committee of the federal court of appeal upheld Bannon’s convictions in May. Bannon is now asking the full appeals court to hear his case. His legal team had argued that the congressional subpoena was invalid because Trump asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors say, however, that Bannon had left the White House years before and that Trump never invoked executive privilege before the committee.

Bannon faces additional criminal charges in New York state court, alleging he misled donors who donated money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges. The trial in the case is expected to begin in December.

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Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.

Dave Collins and Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press