Steve Bannon is a former President Trumpis scheduled to report to a federal prison in Connecticut on Monday to begin serving a four-month sentence on contempt charges for failing to comply with a subpoena for a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington revoked Bannon’s bail after an appeals panel upheld his contempt of Congress conviction, after he had been free for nearly two years while he appealed, and ordered him to report to prison by July 1. The Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal to delay the sentence.
In an emergency motion filed last month with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Bannon’s new lawyer, R. Trent McCotter, charged that the government was “seek[ing]to imprison Mr. Bannon at a time when millions of Americans are turning to him for information on critical election issues in the four months leading up to the November election,” effectively barring him from “serving as a meaningful adviser to an ongoing national election campaign.”
“The political realities here are also undeniable: Mr. Bannon is a prominent political commentator and campaign strategist. He was indicted by an Administration whose policies are frequent targets of his public comments,” the motion states.
Trump ally Steve Bannon files emergency motion to avoid jail time
Steve Bannon appeared in court in New York on January 12, 2023. (Stephen Hirsch/New York Post via Associated Press, Pool, File)
The jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress: first for refusing to give a deposition before a House committee on Jan. 6 and second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Judge orders Steve Bannon to jail
Steve Bannon (center), a former adviser to former President Trump, and attorney Matthew Evan Corcoran leave a courthouse in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
The defense argues that the case raises issues that should be heard by the Supreme Court, including the belief by Mr. Bannon’s former lawyer that the subpoena was invalid because Mr. Trump asserted executive privilege, but prosecutors argue that Mr. Bannon left the White House years ago and that Mr. Trump never asserted executive privilege before the committee.
Bannon’s extradition deadline is the same day the Supreme Court is due to rule on whether President Trump should be immune from prosecution for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The Supreme Court on Friday also ruled in favor of Jan. 6 rioters who were challenging their convictions on federal “obstruction” charges.
While Bannon’s appeal is likely to continue, Republican members of Congress have backed interventions arguing that the Jan. 6 committee was improperly established, effectively seeking to find the subpoena Bannon received was unjustified.
Steve Bannon, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, appeared in Supreme Court in Manhattan, New York City, to set a trial date for May 25, 2023 in New York City. (Curtis Means Pool/Getty Images)
Another Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, was also found guilty of contempt of Congress and entered prison in March to serve a four-month sentence after the Supreme Court denied his request to stay the sentence.
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Bannon also faces criminal charges in New York state court for allegedly defrauding people who donated money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to charges including money laundering, conspiracy and fraud. The trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
