In May, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the criminal conviction of Steve Bannon, confirming the 2022 verdict that convicted the former Trump strategist of contempt of Congress. Bannon is now required to begin his prison sentence by July 1, following Judge Carl Nichols’, a Trump appointee, decision to revoke his bail. On Thursday, Judge Nichols determined that the earlier justifications for postponing his sentence are now invalid.
Bannon, who was convicted for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, has had his sentence put on hold during his appeal. He is expected to remain incarcerated until early November. In 2022, he was convicted for refusing to provide testimony and documents to the House committee investigating the January 6 breach at the Capitol.
Originally, Nichols had placed Bannon’s four-month prison sentence on hold pending appeal. However, Nichols altered his position on Thursday, indicating that the initial grounds for deferring the sentence are no longer relevant in the wake of a unanimous decision by a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last month, which ruled against Bannon’s appeal.
Bannon plans to appeal to the full bench of the D.C. Circuit and possibly the Supreme Court to avoid his prison sentence unless one of these courts intervenes to block Nichols’ decision. Speaking from the federal district courthouse in Washington, D.C., Nichols stated, “I do not believe that the original basis for my stay of Mr. Bannon’s sentence exists anymore,” according to POLITICO.
Bannon, who previously served as an advisor to President Trump, was charged for not complying with a congressional subpoena from the House Select Committee. This committee was probing the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot and had requested Bannon’s testimony and relevant documents as part of their inquiry. Charged with contempt of Congress, Bannon did not show up for his deposition, nor did he submit the demanded documents, arguing that executive privilege excused his non-compliance.
The claim was contentious because Bannon had not been part of the Trump administration during the events in question, having left his official role in 2017. In July 2022, Bannon was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress—one for failing to appear for his deposition and another for failing to produce documents. Each count carried the possibility of up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. He was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison, but the execution of this sentence was initially postponed as Bannon appealed the conviction.
Bannon becomes the second former Trump official to be jailed for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena from the same Democrat-led Jan. 6 committee. He reported to a federal prison in March to serve a four-month sentence. “It’s historic, and will be to future White House aides who get subpoenaed by Congress,” Stanley Brand, a former House general counsel who now represents Navarro as one of his defense lawyers, said at the time, according to CNN.
Also in March, two GOP lawmakers sued two Justice Dept. officials for ignoring Republican congressional subpoenas. The officials were involved in the prosecution of Hunter Biden; the lawsuit says both officials defied their subpoenas by failing to show up for depositions.
See also: It’s ‘unacceptable!’ FBI ignores GOP House subpoena for document related to Joe Biden, family
The House Judiciary Committee noted:
The House Judiciary Committee asked in its complaint that the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., force the officials, both of whom work in the DOJ Tax Division, to comply with the subpoenas and meet with the committee for interviews.
The officials, senior litigation counsel Mark Daly and trial attorney Jack Morgan, were present at a meeting at DOJ headquarters in June 2022 about prosecution decisions related to Biden. Gary Shapley, an IRS criminal investigator-turned-whistleblower who was also present at the meeting, alleged to Congress that the Tax Division opposed bringing charges against Biden during that meeting.
The committee has been engaged for several months in a tedious back-and-forth with the DOJ about obtaining testimony from Daly and Morgan, but the department has resisted allowing the depositions.
During the Obama administration, Attorney General Eric Holder defied a GOP-led congressional subpoena and was held in contempt of Congress, but of course, he was never charged or held accountable.
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