Court Upholds Steve Bannon’s Criminal Conviction
Former White House adviser Steve Bannon’s bid to avoid prison time over his defiance of a congressional subpoena has been rejected by D.C.’s Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Friday, the court ruled that Bannon’s conviction stands, and rejected arguments from the far-right media personality that he did not “willfully” flout the subpoena and instead acted on the advice of lawyers.
“This court, however, has squarely held that ‘willfully’ … means only that the defendant deliberately and intentionally refused to comply with a congressional subpoena, and that this exact ‘advice of counsel’ defense is no defense at all,” the court wrote in its ruling.
“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,” the three-judge panel ruled. “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 [the conviction].”
Bannon in March 2022 was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $6,500 fine for criminal contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 committee.
“The Jan. 6 committee has every right to investigate what happened that day,” Judge Carl Nichols said at Bannon’s sentencing, noting that Bannon “has not provided a single document” or “testimony on any topic,” and that “others must be deterred from committing similar crimes.”
In a boon to Bannon, Nichols also ruled that the defendant would not be required to serve out his prison sentence until his planned appeals had been resolved. Friday’s decision is a critical blow to Bannon’s chances of skirting time behind bars, as further challenges would require the appeals court to agree to a rehearing en banc, or an unlikely escalation to the Supreme Court.
An en blanc hearing would essentially ask the appeals court to fully reconsider Bannon’s case, an extremely unlikely prospect given the firm rebuke given to his arguments in Friday’s ruling. As a last-ditch resort, Bannon could appeal directly to the conservative-controlled Supreme Court. Even with the highest court in the land, the chances of an overturn are slim given that the court has repeatedly affirmed Congress’ right to issue and enforce subpoenas.
In other words, Bannon is probably going to prison.
More from Rolling Stone
Cohen Says Trump Personally Approved Hush-Money Reimbursement Scheme
Progressives Prep $10 Million Campaign to Expose 'MAGA Supreme Court'
Wargame Simulation Predicts NATO Collapse if Trump Is Elected Again
Best of Rolling Stone
