Reminder: Steve Bannon was accused of choking his wife

We’ve covered the fact that Steve Bannon, President-elect Donald Trump’s appointee for White House chief strategist, was accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife in 1996. The point is worth repeating should it get lost amid the accusations that the Breitbart News executive chairman is an anti-Semite.

Politico unearthed the police report from an incident in 1996 when Bannon allegedly choked his ex-wife and smashed her phone when she tried to call the cops.

Bannon was accused by his then-spouse of grabbing her by the neck and wrist after the couple had an argument about their finances.

Officers from Santa Monica’s police department arrived at the couple’s home on New Year’s Day after a hangup call was placed to 911. According to the report, Bannon’s ex-wife said, “Oh, thank you, you are here. How did you know to come?” when  the officers showed up at her door. The officer noted that it appeared that she had been crying and took about three or four minutes to calm down.

“She complained of soreness to her neck,” the officer wrote in an incident report. “I saw red marks on her left wrist and the right side of her neck. These were photographed.”

Bannon’s ex-wife told the officer that they started arguing when she woke up early to feed their infant twin girls, and Bannon, who was sleeping on the couch, started yelling at her because she was making too much noise. The argument escalated when she asked Bannon for his American Express card so she could buy groceries and he refused, telling her to write a check. She followed him out to their car and asked him for the credit card again.

The argument escalated to a full on blowout about the state of their finances and the state of their relationship which culminated in his ex-wife demanding he move out and Bannon’s refusing. She spit on him and that’s when things got physical.

According to the arrest report, Bannon “reached up to her from the driver’s seat of his car and grabbed her left wrist. He pulled her down, as if he was trying to pull [her] into the car, over the door.”

He then “grabbed at neck, also pulling her into the car. She said that she started to fight back striking at his face so he would let go of her. After a short period of time she was able to get away from him.”

She retreated into the house and tried to call the police, but Bannon allegedly grabbed the phone out of her hand and threw it across the room, shattering it into several pieces.

Bannon’s ex-wife told the officer that this wasn’t the first time an argument became physical. At that point, Bannon and his ex-wife were married for about eight months, but had been together for about six and a half years. She said that there hadn’t been any incidents of domestic abuse in the previous four years.

The resulting misdemeanor domestic violence, battery and dissuading a witness charges were dropped because of witness unavailability.

The Guardian cited an excerpt from the couple’s divorce papers:

The woman claims in the divorce filing that it was dismissed because Bannon convinced her to leave town, because “if I wasn’t in town they couldn’t serve me and I wouldn’t have to go to court.”

“He also told me that if I went to court he and his attorney would make sure that I would be the one who was guilty. I was told that I could go anywhere in the world.”

The couple divorced in August of 1996 shortly after the criminal charges were dropped.

Definitely sounds like the kind of guy who should be shaping policy.

[Politico | Photo: Getty]