(USNewsMag.com) – On June 11, Steve Bannon’s attorneys filed a motion urging the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to pause his sentence before June 18 to give him time to exhaust his appeals.
Bannon, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for defying a congressional subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee. During the trial, Bannon had argued he could not respond to the congressional subpoena due to potential claims of executive privilege raised by Trump.
The trial judge, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, an appointee of Trump, sentenced Bannon to serve four months in prison. However, while Bannon appealed his conviction, the judge allowed Bannon to remain free. After a three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit ruled against Bannon in May, during the first stage of his appeal, Nichols granted the prosecution’s request for his sentence to begin. On June 6, Bannon was sentenced to serve his four-month prison sentence starting on July 1.
In the 36-page motion, Bannon’s attorney, Trent McCotter, stated that, if necessary, they would bring their emergency request in the “landmark case” to the Supreme Court. According to Bannon’s attorneys, he should remain out of prison until the case reaches “a court with authority to overturn a key precedent leveraged” to convict Bannon.
His attorneys noted that Bannon’s prison sentence would begin before the Supreme Court could consider a request to take up his appeal, as the court’s term ends by the end of June or early July, and the next term does not begin until Oct. 7.
If Bannon goes to prison, he would be the second former Trump White House official imprisoned for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. A trade adviser to Trump, Peter Navarro, is serving his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress charges after all of his emergency appeals, including to the Supreme Court, failed.
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