Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, asked the supreme court on Friday to delay his prison sentence while he fights his convictions for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the attack on US Capitol.
The emergency application came after a federal appeals court panel rejected Bannon’s bid to avoid reporting to prison by 1 July to serve his four-month sentence. It was addressed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency appeals from courts in Washington DC.
The high court asked the justice department to respond to the request by Wednesday, days before the court is set to begin its summer recess. The court denied a similar request from another Trump aide shortly after receiving a response in March.
Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the January 6 House committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Bannon has cast the case as politically motivated, and his attorney David Schoen has said the case raises “serious constitutional issues” that need to be examined by the supreme court.
Bannon is supposed to report to prison by 1 July to begin serving his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
Carl Nichols, a US district judge who was nominated to the bench by Trump, earlier this month granted prosecutors’ request to send Bannon to prison after a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the DC circuit upheld his conviction.
Bannon was convicted nearly two years ago of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the House January 6 committee and the other for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in efforts by Trump, a Republican, to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Bannon’s lawyer at trial argued that the former Trump adviser didn’t ignore the subpoena but was still engaged in good-faith negotiations with the congressional committee when he was charged. The defense has said Bannon had been relying on the advice of his attorney, who believed that Bannon couldn’t testify or produce documents because Trump had invoked executive privilege.
Lawyers for Bannon say the case raises serious legal questions that will likely need to be resolved by the supreme court, but he will have already finished his prison sentence by the time the case gets there.
In court papers, Bannon’s lawyers also argued that there is a “strong public interest” in allowing him to remain free in the run-up to the 2024 election because Bannon is a top adviser to Trump’s campaign.
Prosecutors said in court papers that Bannon’s “role in political discourse” is irrelevant.
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A second Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, is already serving his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.
The House January 6 committee’s final report asserted that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the US Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection.