Trump ally Steve Bannon will appeal contempt conviction, delay jail time
Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon’s appeal of his conviction for contempt of Congress was turned aside by a federal appeals court Friday, making him the second ally of the 45th president to face jail time for flouting a subpoena from the House select committee that probed the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found that letting Bannon off the hook would “hamstring Congress’s investigatory authority.”
In the 20-page opinion, Judge Bradley Garcia said Bannon’s defense that he had acted on the “advice of counsel” and did not intend to break the law when ignoring the subpoena was “no defense at all.”
“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,” Garcia 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,” he said.
Bannon, 70, faces a four-month prison sentence for two misdemeanor charges after he ignored demands to testify and hand over records to the House Select January 6th Committee.
Bannon’s defense attorney David Schoen announced late Friday afternoon that his client will appeal the decision to the full DC circuit.
“Today’s decision is wrong as a matter of law and it reflects a very dangerous view of the threshold for criminal liability for any defendant in our country and for future political abuses of the congressional hearing process,” Schoen said.
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro reported to prison in March to serve an identical sentence after his own appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Navarro, 74, claimed he was covered by executive privilege when he refused to comply with the House select committee’s subpoenas, which Bannon’s ex-lawyer Robert Costello had also counseled him to rely on.
However, federal prosecutors argued that executive privilege did not cover any of Bannon’s actions as a private citizen.
The Trump strategist only served in the White House for seven months in 2017.
Trump attorney Justin Clark “nowhere suggested that Bannon should categorically refuse to respond,” according to prosecutors.
Schoen disagreed and said his client had been instructed not to respond and that Costello informed the committee it would have to address the executive privilege issues in court first before Bannon could testify.
Like Navarro, Bannon has remained free during the appeals process.
The breach of the US Capitol building by a mob of Trump supporters resulted in the prosecutions of more than 1,200 rioters.
The day before, Bannon had predicted on his show “War Room” that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow” while discussing efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to decertify the 2020 electoral count, according to the January 6th Committee’s final report.
“I’ll tell you this, it’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen, OK? It’s going to be quite extraordinarily different,” Bannon also said on Jan. 5, 2021. “And all I can say is strap in.”
After being found guilty in 2022, Bannon was also ordered to pay a $6,500 fine.
He had been scheduled to head to trial this month over his alleged involvement in a $15 million border wall fundraising scam, but that case was postponed until September as Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan presides over Trump’s “hush money” case.
The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted in 2022 to also refer former White House deputy communications chief of staff Dan Scavino and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows for prosecution by the Justice Department.
The DOJ opted not to charge either man.
