WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday ordered Steve Bannon to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the January 6th Committee.
Bannon, a right-wing media executive and podcaster who served as CEO of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, was convicted in July 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to provide documents or testimony as part of the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot. He was sentenced in October 2022 to four months in prison, but that sentence was stayed by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols while Bannon appealed a decades-old D.C. Circuit precedent that barred him from arguing he’d relied on the advice of his lawyer when he refused to participate in the January 6th Committee’s investigation.
In May, a circuit court panel unanimously upheld Bannon’s conviction and reaffirmed the holding in Licavoli v. United States, a 1960s D.C. Circuit case Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, argued was out-of-step with more modern Supreme Court rulings on the law. In the opinion written by Judge Brad Garcia, a former deputy U.S. attorney general and Biden nominee confirmed to the court in 2022, the panel said agreeing with Bannon would “contravene the text of the contempt statute and hamstring Congress’s investigatory authority.”
Following the circuit’s decision, federal prosecutors asked Nichols to lift his stay in the case and order Bannon to begin serving his prison term. On Thursday, Nichols, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2018 by Trump, agreed.
“If I were sentencing Mr. Bannon today… I would not be able to conclude that Mr. Bannon’s appeal presented significant questions of law likely to result in a new trial or reversal,” Nichols said.
Nichols pointed to both the circuit’s ruling in Bannon’s case and a separate panel’s ruling rejecting the related appeal of Peter Navarro, Trump’s former White House trade advisor who was also convicted of defying a subpoena from the January 6th Committee.
“The government’s motion is granted,” Nichols said. “My stay of Mr. Bannon’s obligation to self-surrender is revoked.”
Nichols ordered Bannon to surrender to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on or before July 1 – roughly a week after Schoen said they will file a request for a rehearing of Bannon’s appeal before the entire D.C. Circuit. Bannon, who has remained defiant throughout the case, has promised to take his appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. In March, SCOTUS declined to grant Navarro a stay of his sentence while he pursues an appeal. Navarro reported to prison that same month and has been serving his time at a federal facility in Miami. He’s expected to be released in mid-July.
After Nichols’ decision Thursday, Schoen, who represented Trump during his second impeachment trial, jumped up and began yelling that the judge was sending an “innocent man” to prison – prompting Nichols to admonish him for his behavior.
“One thing I think you need to learn as a lawyer is, when a judge has decided, you don’t stand up and yell at them,” Nichols said.
Bannon could seek a renewed stay of his sentence from either the full D.C. Circuit or the Supreme Court if he filed a writ of certiorari.