WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to go to prison on July 1. four months imprisonment for To oppose the calls of the January 6 committee after the high court dismissed his appeal.
It was Bannon In July 2022, he was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying the committee’s subpoenas, but his sentence was stayed while he appealed. U.S. District Judge Carl said Thursday that after an appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction, he no longer believed there was a “genuine basis” for him to suspend Bannon’s sentence. Bannon may still challenge the decision that Nicole must report to prison.
It was Bannon was convicted more than a year and a half ago, in October 2022, four months behind bars, the same sentence Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is currently servinghe also refused to comply with the call of the Committee dated January 6.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Gaston, who now serves on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team, told jurors during closing arguments in 2022 that “the defendant chose loyalty to Donald Trump over following the law.”
The sentence of Bannon and his lawyers has been stayed pending an appeal they put forward their claims to a three-judge federal appeals court panel in November. Court of Appeals In May, it upheld Bannon’s convictionand federal prosecutors soon filed a petition He asked Nichols to order Bannon to report to the prison. Federal prosecutors told Nichols there was “no legal basis” to continue the sentence after a federal appeals court rejected the appeal.
Bannon’s lawyers argued that the sentence should be stayed until they appeal the verdict to the full court of appeals and to the Supreme Court. If and when Trump is elected president in November, any delay would certainly benefit Bannon. As he did on January 20, 2021, the last day of his presidency — to pardon Bannon on federal felony charges.
Bannon smiled as he walked through security to enter the courthouse Thursday morning. A nearby person shouted “Trump 24!” he said. smiled at him and Bannon shook his hand.
After the judge’s decision, he appeared calm and continued to smile. Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, moved with more passion than he did during the rest of the trial.
Judge Nichols told him, “One thing you have to learn as a lawyer is that when a judge makes a decision, you don’t stand up and scream,” adding, over Schoen’s objections, “I’ve had enough.”
“I’m not yelling,” Schoen replied, saying he was “passionate.”
“You send someone to jail who thinks they’re following the law, and we don’t do that in my system,” said Schoen, who called the decision “antithetical to our justice system.”
“I think you should sit down,” Nichols replied.
Nichols, who was appointed by Trump, oversaw a number of cases on January 6. He’s the judge who rejected the government’s use of a formal impeachment hearing on January 6 against hundreds of defendants, as well as Trump himself. This case eventually went to the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the use of the statute in April. On Wednesday, Nichols sentenced a defendant who attacked law enforcement with bear spray and was caught thanks to it on Jan. 6. a sting operation initiated by a woman on the dating app Bumble – more than six years in federal prison.
Daniel Barnes contributed.