Steve Bannon, conservative activist and under-bridge troll, is out on bail following being charged with fraud.
First, public death threats against government officials is never a good look, and this goes double when you are on bail, and your behavior can justify a judge to revoke bail.
Really stupid, and I really hope that the judge takes umbrage at his behavior:
Stephen K. Bannon, the former adviser to President Trump who is known for his right-wing extremism, suggested on Thursday that the F.B.I. director and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci should be beheaded, and Twitter responded by banning one of his accounts.
On Friday, a prominent lawyer who was defending Mr. Bannon against fraud charges in federal court in Manhattan abruptly moved to drop him as a client, one person familiar with the matter said.
“Mr. Bannon is in the process of retaining new counsel,” the lawyer, William A. Burck, said in a brief letter to the court, giving no explanation.
………
The loss of his white-shoe representation was just the latest setback for Mr. Bannon, 66, who has struggled for political relevance since losing his job at the White House eight months after Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
………
Since August, Mr. Bannon has been fighting the criminal charges lodged against him by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, the case in which Mr. Burck has been his lawyer.
Mr. Bannon was arrested on charges of defrauding donors to a campaign to privately fund a wall on the United States’ border with Mexico, one of Mr. Trump’s signature political promises.
………
The video showed Mr. Bannon calling for violence against Dr. Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases specialist, and Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director. Both officials have become targets of pro-Trump pundits who accuse them of undermining the president.
Mr. Bannon, in his comments, invoked punishment from the medieval era.
“I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England,” Mr. Bannon said. “I’d put the heads on pikes, right? I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats: You either get with the program or you’re gone.”
………
Mr. Burck gave no reasons for seeking to sever ties with Mr. Bannon in the two-paragraph letter he submitted on Friday to the judge, Analisa Torres of Federal District Court, who must approve a change in lawyers.
Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University School of Law, said speaking generally, “Lawyers will withdraw when a client’s behavior sabotages the lawyer’s work on the client’s behalf.”
In a just world, he’d be in lockup already, but he’s rich, and white, so probably nothing will happen.