Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid by conservative commentator Steve Bannon to stay out of prison while he appeals his conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress.
The order clears the way for Bannon to report to prison by July 1 and begin serving a four-month sentence. Bannon emergency help wanted of the Supreme Court after the federal appeals court in Washington, DC denied his request to remain free during his appeal proceedings.
Bannon, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted almost two years ago after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Lawmakers had requested documents and testimony from Bannon related to his communications with Trump about efforts to overturn the outcome of the to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Bannon, who served as chief White House strategist, rejected the subpoena, arguing that a lawyer for the former president had indicated that Trump had invoked executive privilege over the information requested by House investigators, preventing Bannon from turning it over.
Steven Hirsch / AP
Bannon was fired from the White House in 2017 and was a regular citizen at the time of the 2020 election.
After he refused to provide the information to the select committee, the House voted to find Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress. Weeks later, he was indicted on two counts of criminal contempt.
Before the trial began, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over the proceedings, barred Bannon’s attorney from arguing or presenting evidence that he relied in good faith on his former attorney when he said he could not respond to the subpoena. A jury later found him guilty on both counts, and Bannon was guilty as well sentenced to four months in prison. Nichols allowed Bannon to remain free while he appealed his conviction.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Bannon’s conviction, after which Nichols agreed to revoke Bannon’s bail and ordered him to report to the Bureau of Prisons by July 1 to begin serving his sentence.
Bannon sought emergency relief from the D.C. Circuit pending further appeals of his conviction, including to the Supreme Court. His request was denied 2-1.
In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Bannon’s lawyers argued that he should not have to serve his entire prison sentence before the justices have a chance to consider whether to review his case. The Supreme Court is nearing the end of its term and will begin its summer recess in early July.
They argued in a document that the stakes of Bannon’s indictment “could not be higher” because according to previous DC Circuit rulings, “future disagreements over subpoena compliance will not be resolved with negotiations, but with indictments.”
Bannon’s lawyers noted that in recent decades, senior executive branch officials have been in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas, including attorneys general from both parties, White House counsel and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Anne Gorsuch, the mother of Judge Neil Gorsuch.
“In the future, when the House or Senate and the executive branch are controlled by the same party, there is every reason to fear that former executive branch officials could face prison sentences after refusing to provide privileged materials to a committee, even if the position taken was based on the advice of good faith counsel and requested further negotiations,” they said.
The Justice Department urged the justices to deny Bannon’s request. A document filed with the court said his claim that his convictions will be overturned or that he will win a new trial because lower courts misinterpreted the requirements for a contempt of court conviction “is not persuasive.”
Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar rejected Bannon’s attempt to compare his situation to Justice Department lawyers who refused to turn over documents on Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son.
His “total failure to comply, despite being told by the former president’s attorney that he was not immune from testifying and could not simply ignore the subpoena, is not comparable to internal instructions to current government employees regarding the provision of testimony in connection with their official responsibilities,” she wrote.
She said Bannon could not point to any authority supporting absolute immunity from testimony for former advisers to former presidents, and that he raised no such constitutional defense to his prosecution based on that alleged immunity.
Bannon isn’t the only former Trump White House official to turn to the Supreme Court as he fights a conviction for contempt of Congress. Peter Navarro, who served as a top trade adviser to Trump, is serve a four-month prison sentence in a Miami correctional facility after he was convicted on two charges of criminal contempt last year for defying a subpoena from the House committee.
Navarro asked the Supreme Court to release him during his appeal. Are offer was rejected first by Chief Justice John Roberts and then by the full court.
