A federal court on Friday rejected Steve Bannon’s appeal of his criminal conviction for defying a subpoena from the Jan 6. House select committee. The ruling, which said the former Trump aide's arguments lacked merit, could send the political strategist to prison.
In 2022, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by former President Donald Trump, sentenced Bannon to four months behind bars after a jury convicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress. However, Nichols agreed to postpone Bannon's sentence as he pursued an appeal on the basis that he enjoyed immunity as a result of executive privilege.
However, a three-judge panel of the D.C Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, “saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appear before the Jan. 6 committee,” Politico reported.
The panel's rejection of the appeal comes after former Trump aide Peter Navarro experienced a similar fate. Navarro, who worked with Bannon on a strategy to organize congressional objections to electoral votes from states President Joe Biden won in 2020, is currently serving a four-month sentence for defying his own Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
The two had planned on delaying the electoral process in 2020, seeking to buy GOP-led state legislatures time to appoint alternative slates of pro-Trump electors. Bannon and Navarro refused to appear for their depositions or provide appropriate documentation to the Jan 6. committee, arguing they were protected by executive privilege.
Bannon intends appeal the court's decision to a full eleven-member bench of the appeals court. The case could ultimately head to the Supreme Court, although it recently rejected Navarro's own request that he be let out of prison.
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