Nearly two years after Steve Bannon was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress, the right-wing operative/podcaster hoped an appeals court would undo what a jury already did. When that effort failed, Bannon faced the genuine possibility of incarceration.
That now appears increasingly unavoidable. NBC News reported:
A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to report to prison on July 1 to begin a four-month prison sentence for defying subpoenas from the Jan. 6 Committee after a higher court rejected his appeal.
For those who might need a refresher as to how we arrived at this point, the one thing everyone involved in the process can agree on is that Bannon has important insights related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. He was in communications with then-President Donald Trump in the run-up to the insurrectionist riot, and he reportedly told the outgoing president, “It’s time to kill the Biden presidency in the crib.”
The day before the attack, Bannon seemed to know quite a bit about what was likely to happen, telling his podcast listeners: “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just understand this: All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. … All I can say is: Strap in. You have made this happen, and tomorrow it’s game day.”
With this in mind, it hardly came as a surprise that the bipartisan House committee investigating the attack issued subpoenas in September 2021, seeking information from key Trump insiders — and Bannon was at the top of the list.
When he refused to comply in any way, the House approved a resolution finding the GOP operative in contempt of Congress. As part of the same process, the Democratic-led chamber referred the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. In November 2021, Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury, charged with one count of contempt and another involving his refusal to produce documents despite a congressional subpoena.
The criminal trial didn’t go especially well for the defendant: Bannon’s defense team called no witnesses, and the accused never took the stand. The jury only deliberated for about three hours before finding him guilty.
A few months later, U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols — also appointed by Trump — sentenced Bannon to four months behind bars, though the jurist said he could remain free while the appeals process continued.
As my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim explained in May, when a federal appeals court upheld Bannon’s conviction, he was left with few options.
Federal prosecutors told Nichols there was “no legal basis” for the continued stay. The jurist agreed and ordered Bannon to report to prison by next month.
The podcast host and his defense counsel will almost certainly continue to pursue appeals, though it appears increasingly inevitable that Bannon will soon be behind bars.
Complicating matters, Bannon is also slated to stand trial in New York City in September on charges related to his role in the “We Build the Wall” operation. In that case, he’s accused of helping defraud donors; he has pleaded not guilty. (Coincidentally, Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s hush money trial, is overseeing Bannon’s other case, too.)
Bannon also faced federal criminal charges four years ago, though he received a pardon from Trump on the president’s last day in office.
Another presidential pardon this year appears extremely unlikely.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
