Bannon's Prison Release Signals New Phase in MAGA Movement

Stephen K. Bannon, the combative and calculating strategist who helped elect Donald J. Trump to the White House and became one of the most influential voices of the hard right, was released from federal prison early Tuesday.

He wasted little time reprising his role as one of the leading provocateurs of the former president’s political movement.

“I’m not broken, I’m empowered,” Mr.

Bannon said in an interview shortly after his release at 3:15 a.m. from a low-security prison in Danbury, Conn.

He predicted a bitter legal battle after Election Day that could last for weeks or months before a winner is clear. “If people think American politics has been divisive before, you haven’t seen anything,” he said.

Mr. Bannon, 70, had been serving a four-month sentence on contempt charges for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena seeking information about the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Asked on Tuesday whether he thought it had been worth a prison sentence to not testify before Congress, he said: “1,000 percent.”

“If you’re not prepared to go to prison to fight for your country,” he said, “you’re not prepared to fight for your country.”In prison, his access to the internet was restricted, silencing his political megaphone. Mr. Bannon’s primary form of communication with the outside world was through email, using a service for inmates of federal correctional facilities that can be monitored and that limits the number of people a prisoner can contact.