WASHINGTON — Nearly two years later Steve Bannon has been convicted of contempt of Congress twice For objecting to subpoenas from the House January 6 In the committee, federal prosecutors told the Supreme Court that it is time for Donald Trump’s former adviser to begin serving a four-month prison sentence.
“This Court recently denied a similar petition to release another defendant that was in stark contrast to a subpoena issued by the same committee that subpoenaed the petitioner,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar said, referring to former Trump adviser Peter Navarro. “For reasons set forth more fully below, the same result is warranted here.”
Navarro, who was sentenced to four months in federal prison on the same charges as Bannon, has served his sentence He was sent to prison in March.
Wednesday’s filing was Bannon’s response eleventh hour proposal He is asking the Supreme Court to allow him to stay out of jail and pursue further appeals. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols issued the order to Bannon Report to the prison next Monday after a dramatic hearing this month.
A federal appeals court after the Nichols decision He rejected Bannon’s request stay his prison sentence pending further appeal, meaning only the Supreme Court can stay the sentence. The high court had asked the Department of Justice to file a brief stating its views on the matter by 4pm on Wednesday.
Bannon was convicted and imprisoned twice in July 2022 of contempt of Congress. four months imprisonment In October 2022. The ruling was stayed pending appeals, and Nichols made the decision after a panel of federal appeals judges. In May, it upheld Bannon’s conviction and federal prosecutors asked him to order Bannon to report to prison, saying there was no legal basis for it to proceed.
Bannon said in his Supreme Court filing that he “relied in good faith on the advice of his counsel” to ignore a Jan. 6 House committee subpoena based on a potential claim of executive privilege. But as prosecutors noted in earlier sentencing memos, Bannon was long out of the White House by the time the House committee was concerned — when Trump was trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and stay in power — the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. up to
Daniel Barnes contributed.