WASHINGTON — Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon obliged House Jan. 6 report to prison by Monday after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute bid to stay his four-month prison sentence for defying the committee’s subpoenas.
Bannon was convicted in Washington of two counts of contempt of Congress nearly two years ago, in July 2022, and sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols stayed his sentence as he continued his appeal. His conviction was overturned in May. Nichols ordered Bannon to appear in jail by July 1, saying there was no basis to continue delaying the sentence. An appeals court later rejected Bannon’s appeal of the ruling, leaving only the Supreme Court to help him avoid jail time.
Bannon was held in contempt of Congress after he threw out the committee’s Jan. 6 request for documents and testimony as part of an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempts to change the 2020 election results and stay in office. Jan. 6, 2021 Capital Attack. Bannon’s lawyer told the Supreme Court that he relied on the advice of counsel. But as federal prosecutors noted in their 2022 sentencing memo, there is no operational claim for executive privilege because Bannon was part of the Trump administration years ago, not during the time frame examined by the Jan. 6 committee.
Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who served four months in federal prison on the same charges, is serving his sentence after being jailed in March.
Bannon, 70, has already been assigned an inmate number by the Federal Bureau of Prisons: 05635-509.
