Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser, predicted in a new interview with Tucker Carlson Friday night that Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray won't hold their positions by next year.
Why it matters: Bannon made the predictions hours after he was sentenced to four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee.
What he said: Bannon criticized the Department of Justice and FBI in an interview on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Friday, saying leaders of both institutions will lose their positions in 2023.
- “The whole Justice Department under Merrick Garland has become radically partisan,” Bannon said. “I strongly believe you’ll see Merrick Garland impeached next year by the new Congress.”
- He predicted that Garland and Wray would be impeached and that Republicans would win the House in the upcoming midterm elections.
- "What I want Republicans in the new Congress, is to focus on cleaning out the rat’s nest at DOJ and cleaning out the rat’s nest at the FBI," he said.
Context: Bannon in July was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, which sought testimony from Bannon on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.
- The DOJ recommended last week that Bannon receive a six-month jail sentence because he "has pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt."
The big picture: Bannon's comments align with Republican outrage over the Department of Justice and FBI in recent months. The DOJ faced heavy criticism in August after the FBI carried out a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
- A number of polls in August showed that the FBI's search on Trump bolstered the former president's standing among voters, despite worries from Republicans it might damage him and them in the upcoming midterms, Axios reports.
Go deeper: Top Republicans press DOJ for answers on Mar-a-Lago search
