On Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld former White House chief strategist and MAGA podcaster Steve Bannon's two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. (RELATED: Steve Bannon Blasts GOP Speaker For Passing ‘Demonic' Bill)
Politico's senior legal affairs reporter, Kyle Cheney, explained that the three-judge panel ruled unanimously:
“Because we have no basis to depart from that binding precedent, and because none of Bannon's other challenges to his convictions have merit, we affirm [the conviction],” the panel ruled in a 20-page opinion.
The judges on the panel included Barack Obama appointee Cornelia Pillard, Trump appointee Justin Walker and Joe Biden appointee Bradley Garcia. Bannon can appeal the decision either to the full 11-member bench of the appeals court or to the Supreme Court. His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision comes after federal courts — including the Supreme Court — rejected a similar bid by former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro to stave off his own four-month sentence for defying the Jan. 6 committee. Navarro is currently serving his own four-month sentence in Miami.
Bannon and Navarro worked together on a strategy they dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep,” a plan to organize objections by members of Congress to electoral votes from states Biden won in 2020, delaying the process and buying time for GOP state legislatures to step in and appoint pro-Trump electors.
Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, sentenced Bannon to four months in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of $6,500 in October 2022 for one count of refusing to appear before Congress and another of failing to produce documents requested by the subcommittee.
Bannon's upheld conviction paves the way for serving his four-month prison sentence. His sentence had been on hold pending today's ruling.
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