The Supreme Court rejected a petition by former Trump adviser and podcast host Steve Bannon, who sought to avoid reporting to prison while he appeals his criminal conviction for defying subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 committee.
The high court said Friday that it saw no reason to disagree with a lower court’s order to lift a stay on Bannon’s long-delayed sentence after an appeals court recently affirmed his criminal conviction for defying the now-defunct committee’s demands. The decision means Bannon must report to prison in Danbury, Connecticut, by Monday.
The Justice Department on Wednesday urged the nine justices to deny Bannon’s effort to continue the delay of his four-month prison sentence, which would see the staunch pro-Trump and conservative podcaster behind bars for the rest of the 2024 election season.
“This Court recently denied a similar application for release by another defendant who engaged in complete defiance of a subpoena issued by the same committee that subpoenaed applicant,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a court filing, referring to former Trump adviser Peter Navarro. “For reasons set forth in more detail below, the same result is warranted here.”
Navarro, who was sentenced in March to four months at a federal prison in Miami for the same charges as Bannon, is slated to be released sometime in mid-July.
The DOJ’s Wednesday filing was in response to Bannon’s petition asking the high court to allow him to remain out of prison while he further appeals U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols’s order to report to prison by Monday after a tumultuous hearing earlier this month.
Before the Supreme Court rejected Bannon’s request, his legal counsel sent a reply to the government, reminding the high court that the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group voted on Tuesday to “withdraw the brief the House had previously submitted against Mr. Bannon in his trial court proceedings in 2022.”
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Bannon’s counsel noted the House’s amicus brief would be filed during their client’s proceedings before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
A three-judge panel on the circuit court previously rejected Bannon’s effort to overturn his conviction. Although Bannon can no longer delay his Monday order to report for sentencing, he will be able to appeal his conviction all the way up the Supreme Court in the meantime.
