A federal appeals courtroom on Thursday rejected Stephen Okay. Bannon’s last-ditch bid to stay free whereas he exhausts his authorized choices to overturn his conviction for contempt of Congress, leaving little likelihood that he can additional delay a four-month jail sentence that’s set to start out subsequent month.
Mr. Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, was convicted in 2022 after ignoring a congressional subpoena looking for details about his position within the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, however he had been allowed to stay free whereas he pursued a prolonged appeals course of. That got here to an finish this month when the choose overseeing his case ordered Mr. Bannon to report back to jail on July 1 after a federal appeals courtroom upheld his conviction in Could.
The three-judge appeals panel that denied Mr. Bannon’s emergency movement on Thursday was cut up, 2 to 1, with Decide Justin R. Walker dissenting. Decide Walker famous that Mr. Bannon was petitioning the Supreme Courtroom to think about his case and wrote that he ought to stay free till it decides whether or not to listen to his attraction.
Mr. Bannon’s attorneys have argued that his case entails necessary authorized questions surrounding the separation of powers. At trial, they argued that Mr. Bannon was performing on the recommendation of attorneys who endorsed him that he might disregard the subpoena beneath former President Donald J. Trump’s government privilege. Mr. Bannon had served briefly as Mr. Trump’s prime political adviser within the White Home however had left the place lengthy earlier than the assault on the Capitol.
Within the order, the courtroom wrote that Mr. Bannon’s attraction was unlikely to succeed, as judges must considerably bend the regulation as written to conclude that he had not deliberately dismissed Congress’s makes an attempt to get his testimony.
“He gives no foundation to conclude {that a} increased courtroom is prone to upend the established understanding of ‘willfully’ within the context of contempt of a transparent obligation to answer congressional subpoenas,” the courtroom wrote.
Earlier this 12 months, the Supreme Courtroom repeatedly rejected a request by Peter Navarro, one other shut ally of Mr. Trump, to keep away from an similar sentence for contempt associated to a subpoena from the Home’s Jan. 6 committee. Mr. Navarro had sought to attraction his case on grounds much like Mr. Bannon’s.
