Story by Ewan Palmer
A federal appeals court rejected Steve Bannon‘s request to stay out of prison while he fights his contempt of Congress conviction, but one judge said the former White House chief strategist should be allowed to take his case to the Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Thursday that the top Donald Trump ally cannot delay surrendering by July 1 to begin his four-month sentence as Bannon has “no basis” to conclude that a higher court will overturn his conviction.
The judge who dissented, Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, argued that Bannon “should not go to prison before the Supreme Court considers” his appeal.
The host of the influential War Room podcast previously vowed to go “all the way to the Supreme Court” to try to overturn his conviction. He was sentenced to four months in jail in October 2022 after he was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena issued to him by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack.
Grace Chong, the chief operating officer for War Room, was one of those who expressed hope for because of Walker’s dissent. “They got one judge to dissent, which is great,” Grace posted on X.
They got one judge to dissent, which is great! 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/19YjpJGxM6
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) June 21, 2024
Bannon’s appeal is based on the suggestion that he did not “willfully” refuse to comply with the Congressional subpoena.
Instead, Bannon claims that he was relying on the advice of his former lawyer, Robert Costello, who argued Bannon was shielded from disclosing documents or discussing conversations he had with Trump about alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results due to executive privilege.
Winning the appeal will be difficult according to Joey Jackson, a former New York state prosecutor and a legal analyst. He said Bannon’s current appeal is likely to be rejected by the nation’s highest court.
“Steve Bannon, like any other person convicted of a crime, maintains all appellate rights allowed by law. That stated, the merits of his appeal have already been heard by a federal appeals court—and rejected,” Jackson previously told Newsweek.
“There simply is no novel claim for the full D.C. court to assess nor for the Supreme Court to entertain.”
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