The former Trump adviser and right-wing strategist is exhausting his options to avoid serving his conviction of contempt of Congress
Former White House adviser Steve Bannon's bid to escape jail time over his defiance of a congressional subpoena has been rejected by DC'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 investigative 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 nod 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.