Long-time Trump associate Steve Bannon is due to go to a federal prison in Connecticut on Monday to serve a four-month sentence on contempt of court charges for disobeying a subpoena as part of a congressional investigation into the attack on the US Capitol, France 24 reports.
Bannon’s lawyers had argued that his case raised issues that needed to be heard by the Supreme Court, but the court on Friday refused to grant his last-minute appeal to avoid jail time.
The judge had allowed Bannon to remain free for nearly two years while he appealed, but ordered him to report to jail on Monday after an appeals court panel upheld his contempt of Congress charges. The Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal to delay his sentence.
A jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress, one for refusing to testify to a House committee on 6 January and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in the former Republican president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Defence lawyers argue that the case raises issues that should be considered by the Supreme Court, including that Bannon’s previous lawyer believed the subpoena was invalid because of former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege. Prosecutors, however, argue that Bannon had left the White House years earlier and Trump never invoked executive privilege before the committee.
Bannon’s appeal will continue, and Republican leaders in the House have advocated arguing that the January 6 committee was improperly created, effectively trying to make the subpoena Bannon received illegal.
Trade adviser Peter Navarro, another Trump aide, was also convicted of contempt of Congress. He went to prison in March to serve a four-month sentence after the Supreme Court denied his request for a stay of sentencing.
Bannon also faces criminal charges in New York state court that he defrauded donors who gave money to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Bannon pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and his trial has been postponed until at least late September.
