A federal judge ruled Thursday that Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence for failing to comply with a subpoena from a House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack.
After a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court upheld Bannon’s contempt of Congress conviction last month, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted prosecutors’ request to begin serving Bannon’s sentence, but in his ruling, Nichols also said Bannon could seek a stay of the sentence, which could delay his appearance in court.
Nichols, who was appointed to the judge by Republican President Donald Trump, had initially said Bannon could remain free while he fought his conviction, but a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found all of Bannon’s challenges to be without merit.
Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to testify before a House committee on Jan. 6 and another for refusing to provide documents related to Trump’s involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
At trial, Bannon’s lawyers argued that the charges were politically motivated, that his former adviser had not ignored subpoenas and was negotiating in good faith with congressional committees at the time the charges were filed.
The defense says Mr. Bannon was acting on the advice of his then-lawyer, who told him the subpoena was invalid because the committee had not allowed Mr. Trump’s lawyers to be present and that he couldn’t determine what documents or testimony he could produce because Mr. Trump had asserted executive privilege.
Defense attorney David Schoen told the judge that the defense plans to ask the full Federal Circuit and the Supreme Court to review the case if necessary. Schoen said it would be unfair to send Bannon to prison now because he will have already served his sentence before the sentence is imposed.
“While that may serve a political purpose, it would amount to grave injustice,” Shawn wrote in court documents.
Trump’s second-highest aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, was also found guilty of contempt of Congress and committed to prison in March to serve a four-month sentence.
Navarro had argued that he could not cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege, but the court rejected that argument, finding that Navarro had failed to prove that Trump had in fact invoked executive privilege.
The House committee’s final report on Jan. 6 alleged that Trump criminally engaged in a “multifaceted conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to stop his supporters from storming the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent riot two years ago.
