Judge rules Bannon must go to prison by July 1 while appealing contempt case
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Trump political adviser and right-wing podcaster Stephen K. Bannon to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month prison term for contempt of Congress after an appeals court in May upheld his conviction .
Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to lift the hold on his sentence , arguing that no substantial legal questions remain over Bannon’s two-count conviction for refusing to provide documents or testimony to a House committee probing the Jan. 6 , 2021 Capitol attack. A panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected Bannon’s appeal on all grounds last month.
Bannon, seated at a defense table in his usual layered black blazer and shirts, did not visibly react to the decision. Outside the courthouse, he cast his case in partisan terms. “This is about one thing — shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down president Trump,” Bannon said. “There’s not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up ... We’re going to win this. We’re going to win at the Supreme Court, and, more importantly, we’re going to win on Nov. 5 in an amazing landslide.”
Bannon’s attorneys similarly had signaled they felt the issue was one for higher courts.
“By the Government’s own account, these issues can only be fully reviewed on their merits by the Court of Appeals sitting en banc or by the United States Supreme Court; therefore there is no basis for considering the removal of the stay of the sentence pending appeal until the appeals process has fully run its course,” Bannon attorney David I. Schoen argued in filings before Thursday’s hearing.
Bannon would suffer “irreparable harm” if he were sent to prison now because he would almost certainly complete his four-month sentence before his appeals are decided, Schoen wrote.
Schoen has said that he would seek a rehearing before the full D.C. Circuit after a three-judge panel of the appeals court affirmed on May 10 Bannon’s conviction at trial by a D.C. jury in July 2022. The panel said that Bannon can still seek a review from the full appeals court or the Supreme Court, and that it would not return the case to Nichols until seven days after either handled such a request. Prosecutors argued that Nichols retains authority to revoke Bannon’s bond now and make him report to prison.
At sentencing, Nichols placed Bannon’s reporting date on hold, saying he raised a substantial question about whether he should be able to argue that he did not “willfully” refuse to cooperate because he relied on legal advice to ignore a House subpoena for his documents and testimony, among other defenses.
Nichols has said that he did not have the authority to overrule a 1961 D.C. Circuit decision barring such defenses, but that the full court of appeals could.
Bannon could also ask the Supreme Court to intervene, but the justices declined a similar request from Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro, 74, who in March became the first person incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century, since the red-baiting hearings of the Cold War era. Navarro, who said in a memoir that he and Bannon had a plan for Jan. 6 that would keep Joe Biden from taking office, was convicted of the same crimes in September and received an identical sentence in January from U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta.
Navarro interacted with the House investigative committee without an attorney, however, while Bannon communicated with them through an attorney, Robert J. Costello, who represented Bannon in several matters before withdrawing from the case before trial because he was a potential witness.
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Relax Steve, 6 months is better than the fate your pal Trotsky met.
The delousing process that I believe inmates go through prior to incarceration should take about three days with this pile of human refuse.
Why do only certain people go to jail for "contempt of congress?"
Because they are the guilty ones?
My question is why Trump wasn't in prison years ago?
He wasn’t convicted years ago.
Ask Jim Jordan...
yeah, when's jim jordan going to face the music? I recommend something off trump's playlist, like the village people maybe...
steve should get a haircut before going in, or he's probably going to be eating a lot of soap and drinking a lot of water...
why would any american want to support a convicted felon as their presidential candidate?
How low the once mighty GOP has fallen! It's insignia will be stricken down and trampled and there shall be no place found for it in the pantheon of tomorrows! Woe!
Yet the sound of crashing down to the dirt must be heard whenever the U.S government, a Titan, must reprimand one of its children.
hopefully there's no pick axes available at club fed...
This guy represents the worst of humankind.
funny how trump won't be able to associate with a lot of his former friends after today...
I'm sure his probation officer warned him today about any contact with the criminal element he worked with previously...
Were he to make it to jail-cell, I am pretty sure he would be in isolation (and that ain't necessarily good either). "One - Is the loneliest number." - Three Dog Night.
One has to wonder if Donald is compelled to spend imposed quality time with himself alone would he be 'visited' by all the ghosts whom lives he has ruined.
Things just keep getting and better for him, don't they?
See how everyone surrounding the former 'president' are just the worst, slimiest, shittiest, scummiest 'people'. From Bannon to Roger Stone, EVERYONE it seems.
Remember when he says he hires only the "best" people.
Did he go into the sewers to find the best?
Yes. Donald is a bottom-feeder. And apparently there are quite enough grifters on the bottom waiting to be scouted by him.
they were the only people available in the sewer...
I'm sure there were rats down there...with better characters
Real sewer rats don't want a cushy office job!
How do you know? Did you ever ask a rat?
lol
Oh golly wow. . .it's all too much. . .when's lunch? Ugh, this place smells weird. Somebody get me my agent!
LOL and cute!
my thoughts exactly
You should check out Stephen Colbert the other night and the secret juror on the trial of convicted felon 34 counts - freaking hilarious.
Our court system has a problem: Either it takes too long to process cases to final judgement or it is open to abuse. The Bannons; and Donalds' have finally fixated on the fine art of using the court system as a delaying tactic (most people like to get it over with) while these hard-core belligerent types exploit every hole in the system. Now, just imagine what would have to our 'burdened' system of justice if EVERY citizen that goes to court for crime and punishment chose to fight their case through the appeals process. . . the system would stall completely (it's showing stress and strain now from these. . . clowns). On the otherhand, why should these "clowns" be the ones who get to 'enjoy' time and delay while others just go to jail/prison.
It's time for our legal system to shit or get off the damn pots! Fix this now!
The human dumpster is going to jail....LOL
that's another good description of mr. walking talking crabs and anal warts (not that I've ever seen one or had the misfortune of crabs or anal warts) lol
Bannon is going to decorate his cell and get it ready for his new cellmate.
Hi my name is Eric Holder.
I was held in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents on running guns to Mexican cartels.
Nothing happened to me because I’m a Democrat.
Nothing happened to him, because MAGAs lacked the power in the senate to carry the bad case forward. But, oh look! Donald was impeached twice (for trying to take (unreasonable) advantage of Ukraine and be transactional; for taking advantage of his supporters on J6 by ordering them to Washington and while rumored whirled around that they might be up to no good-he did not sufficiently or regularly tell them to assent to good order protesting.) Details matter.
Somebody should ask Biden to utterly and completely pardon former AG Holder.
He would have had to prosecute himself.
Obama replaced him soon after that.
So you admit the GOP House of Representatives had a "show trial" of sorts. That is, it was performance art.' And, then MAGAs impeached Merrick Garland as a second act of 'art.'
AG Holder RESIGNED in 2015 and Obama's second term terminated on the proper schedule. It is interesting to me how you hide the facts with your use of language. You say he was REPLACED, seeming to bring to mind that Obama threw him out. You fully know that he resigned of his own free will. Likely, because GOP House Representatives made him a lightning rod and hit him repeatedly with RETRIBUTION.
You chose disinformation over facts as known and understood. You have no knowledge of why AG Holder RESIGNED as it is not public.
We see MAGAs.
I can hear the warden now... "But we just got the damn prison cleaned!!!!!"
hopefully anonymous hacks his shit and leaves him destitute, while he becomes the maga sodomy poster boy...
This could happen with Trump, too, if he is sentenced to do time next month. Even though he will obviously appeal, he may well be ordered to prison pending that appeal.
Given his egregious conduct regarding the trial and the entire judicial process, and his continuing lack of remorse, it would serve him right.
Donald (ME-ME-ME) has the 'best' lawyers for a reason. . . it is their ONE JOB to allow Donald to micro-manage his cases while being accountable for his losses (and their pay) at the end of the day. And if this appeals ends poorly for Donald ( a big IF up or down) on the down side. I expect him to suit his team of lawyers or just not pay them their due.
if I was the judge, I'd make trump serve out the gag order violations as a contempt of court sentence until his appeal court date...
I would order the maximum time allowed of community service.
I'd want to know the stretch of highway that POS was picking up trash...
awesome
The pendulum is starting to swing back in the other direction, and judges are getting tired of these "never-ending MAGAs" hanger-on cases.