Federal prosecutors have formally requested that the judge overseeing the criminal contempt of Congress case against former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon initiate his four-month prison sentence. This request comes after an appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction last week.
In their filing on Tuesday, prosecutors asserted that there is no legal justification for Judge Carl Nichols to continue delaying Bannon’s sentence following the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ definitive ruling, which rejected all grounds of Bannon’s appeal.
“Consequently, there is no longer a ‘substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,'” prosecutors stated in their filing.
It remains unclear when Judge Nichols will rule on the request.
In response to Tuesday’s developments, Bannon expressed his surprise and suggested that the move was an attempt to suppress the voice of the MAGA movement.
Bannon was initially sentenced to four months in prison for contempt in October 2022, but Judge Nichols granted a postponement of the jail term while Bannon pursued his appeal.
In its opinion last Friday, the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that none of the information sought in the trial subpoenas was relevant to the elements of the contempt offense or to any affirmative defense Bannon was entitled to present at trial. As a result, the judges affirmed the judgment of conviction and sentence.
