Topline
A federal appeals court denied former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s appeal of his conviction for contempt of Congress for defying a House subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee, paving the way for his four-month jail sentence to begin, though he could still delay his jail term.
Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail for refusing to cooperate with a House subpoena.
Key Facts
The House Jan. 6 Committee, formed to investigate the Capitol insurrection following former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, subpoenaed Bannon in September 2021 over his alleged role in the lead-up to the Capitol Jan. 6 riot, though Bannon refused to comply.
Bannon had argued that he could not testify before the committee due to executive privilege, and claimed his attorney advised him not to respond to the congressional subpoena, though the three-judge federal Court of Appeals panel rejected that argument on Thursday, upholding a lower court’s decision.
In its ruling, the appeals court stated Bannon “knew what the subpoena required but did not appear or provide a single document,” adding that Bannon’s “advice of counsel defense is no defense at all.”
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What To Watch For
Bannon’s attorney David Schoen told Forbes he will seek redress before the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a process referred to as a rehearing en banc. In a statement, Schoen argued Thursday’s ruling by the appeals court panel was “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.” Bannon also has the option of Supreme Court review, though Eric Columbus, an attorney who represented the House subcommittee, argued the Supreme Court route would be unlikely to work, and that the en banc route has “zero chance.”
Key Background
Trump brought on Bannon, the former chair of right-wing outlet Breitbart News, as an executive during his 2016 presidential campaign, and later made him chief strategist in his administration. In the waning days of Trump’s term after President Joe Biden was elected to the White House, Bannon backed Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in the election. The House Jan. 6 Committee accused Bannon of playing a key role in the lead-up to the riots by supporting Trump’s unfounded claims, and meeting with Trump allies ahead of the riot. He was indicted In April 2022 by a federal grand jury in Washington D.C. on two counts of contempt of Congress, including for his failure to hand over documents to the House committee, and while prosecutors had pushed for a six-month sentence, Bannon was ultimately sentenced to four months and issued a $6,500 fine. Bannon’s jail term was postponed at the time while Bannon appealed the decision.
Tangent
The contempt case is not Bannon’s only legal dilemma. In September 2022, Bannon was indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges in New York stemming from a fundraising effort toward a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon pleaded not guilty to those charges, while separate federal fraud charges over the “We Build The Wall” fundraising campaign were dropped after Trump issued Bannon a presidential pardon in the last months at the Oval Office.
