Steve Bannon was recently ordered to report to prison on July 1 to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress via Deadline.
Bannon, who is a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, served as his White House chief strategist, can still seek a stay of Judge Carl Nichols’ order, per the AP. But an appeals court last month rejected Bannon’s arguments for why the conviction should be overturned.
It has been noted that Bannon now has a regular platform as a podcast host, where he has said that Trump will seek retribution in his next term, particularly after the former president’s conviction in New York last week on felony charges.
Bannon was convicted for defying a congressional subpoena issued by the House January 6th Committee. The committee was dissolved when Republicans took control of Congress last year.
The appeals court decision, made by appointees of Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, was unanimous.
The judges rejected Bannon’s defense — that he was relying on the advice of counsel in ignoring a subpoena from the January 6th Committee.
“As both this court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly explained, a contrary rule would contravene the text of the contempt statute and hamstring Congress’s investigatory authority,” the judges wrote. “Because we have no basis to depart from that binding precedent, and because none of Bannon’s other challenges to his convictions have merit, we affirm.”
The January 6 committee had asked for documents and testimony from Bannon in 2021, but he never complied. The panel was looking at his contact with Trump during the lead-up to the attack on the Capitol.
