Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon was released from federal prison early Tuesday and immediately resumed his full-throated support for the former president, urging Republicans to turn out in large numbers next week to defeat Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.

Bannon served a four-month sentence for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He left the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., in the pre-dawn hours and headed to Manhattan, where he resumed his WarRoom podcast and online show and later held an afternoon news conference.

“I’m finally out of being a political prisoner,” Bannon declared at the media event, saying that prominent Democrats hoped to break him. “I think you can see today I’m far from broken. I’ve been empowered by my four months in Danbury federal prison.”

The experience was empowering, he said, because of whom he met and what they had to say about Harris.

“I was able to listen, to observe and to learn and from working-class minorities — young African American men and Hispanic men and yes, Puerto Rican men — about what their lives are,” Bannon said, claiming his fellow prisoners took a dim 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, though he declined to provide specifics. Judges, election officials, cybersecurity experts and Trump’s own attorney general have all rejected his claims of mass voter fraud in 2020.

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

A jury found Bannon guilty in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement with Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

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

Paul Pelosi attacker gets state life sentence

The man who was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for attacking the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer in their California home was given a life term without the possibility of parole on Tuesday following a separate state trial.

A San Francisco jury in June found David DePape guilty of charges including aggravated kidnapping, first-degree burglary and false imprisonment of an elder.

Before sentencing DePape to life for the kidnapping conviction, Judge Harry Dorfman rejected defense attorneys’ arguments that he be granted a new state trial for the 2022 attack against Paul Pelosi, who was 82 years old at the time.

“It’s my intention that Mr. DePape will never get out of prison, he can never be paroled,” Dorfman said while handing out the punishment. He later said, “I don’t feel sympathy for you. I feel sympathy for the victim in this case, who’s lucky to be alive.”

Adam Lipson, a San Francisco deputy public defender, had asked Dorfman to consider DePape’s mental health and isolation that made him susceptible to online propaganda.

“This is a man who has always been a peaceful, law-abiding person up until his activation,” Lipson said before the punishment was handed down.

Crashed freighter owners deflect liability

As a sprawling liability case takes shape following the deadly collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, the owner and manager of the container ship Dali are seeking to deflect responsibility and cast blame elsewhere.

Attorneys for Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Group argued in court Tuesday that Maryland state officials should have better protected the bridge against ship strikes. They also raised questions about whether the shipbuilder installed faulty electrical equipment that caused the Dali to lose power as it approached the bridge.

Among the claimants are the families of six construction workers killed in the collapse as well as state and local governments, businesses, longshoremen and more. They’ve accused Grace Ocean and Synergy of failing to properly maintain the Dali, ignoring longstanding problems with its electrical system and knowingly sending an unseaworthy vessel into Maryland waters.

The Dali was leaving Baltimore enroute to Sri Lanka when it lost power and veered off course, striking the bridge. Six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths. A last-minute mayday call from the ship’s pilots allowed police to stop traffic to the bridge, but they weren’t able to alert the workers.

The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore, increased commute times for local drivers and left many longshoremen temporarily out of work.

Charges added to U.K. teen stabbing suspect

The teenager accused in a stabbing rampage that killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class near Liverpool, England, has been charged with producing the deadly poison ricin and also faces a terror offense for possessing a jihadi training manual, police said Tuesday.

Axel Rudakubana, 18, who is charged with murdering three girls and stabbing 10 other people on July 29, produced ricin that was found in a search of

his home, Merseyside Police said. Police also found a computer file with an al-Qaida training manual titled: “Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants.”

The stabbings fueled far-right activists to stoke anger at immigrants and Muslims after social media falsely identified the suspect — then unnamed — as an asylum seeker who had recently arrived in Britain by boat.

Within hours of a community vigil to mourn the Southport victims, an unruly mob attacked a mosque near the dance studio and tossed bricks and beer bottles at law enforcement officers and set fire to a police van.

Rioting spread across England and Northern Ireland that lasted a week.

Musk wins court battle over union threat post

A federal agency was wrong to order that Tesla CEO Elon Musk delete a 2018 social media post that union leaders saw as a threat to employee stock options, a sharply divided federal appeals court has ruled.

The case involved a post made on what was then known as Twitter during United Auto Workers organizing efforts at a Tesla facility in Fremont, Calif. The post was made years before Musk bought the platform, now known as X, in 2022.

On May 20, 2018, Musk tweeted: “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues and give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare.”

The National Labor Relations Board said it was an illegal threat. After Tesla appealed, three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld that decision, as well as a related NLRB order that Tesla rehire a fired employee, with back pay.

Canada names Indian official in Sikh row

A Canadian official alleged Tuesday that Indian Home Minister Amit Shah ordered a campaign of violence, intimidation and intelligence-gathering targeting Sikh separatists inside Canada.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister David Morrison told Parliament members of the national security committee that he had confirmed Shah’s name to The Washington Post, which first reported the allegations.

Morrison did not say how Canada knew of Shah’s alleged involvement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said a year ago that Canada had credible evidence agents of the Indian government were involved in the murder of Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June 2023.

Canadian authorities have repeatedly said they have shared evidence of that with Indian authorities.

Indian government officials have repeatedly denied Canada has provided evidence and have called the allegations absurd. India’s embassy in Ottawa didn’t respond to messages for a request for comment on the allegation against Shah.

Coppola to receive achievement award

Francis Ford Coppola will receive the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday.

Coppola, who recently released his long-in-development epic “Megalopolis,” will be presented with the award in a gala tribute at Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre on April 26. The 85-year-old filmmaker will be the 50th recipient of the award first handed out to John Ford in 1973.

Coppola released “Megalopolis in September.

Last year’s AFI honoree was Nicole Kidman. Other recent recipients include John Williams, Mel Brooks, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.

— From news services