Former senior adviser Steve Bannon Donald TrumpA federal judge said Thursday that a senator sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress must serve his sentence in jail by July 1.
The verdict means Bannon, a right-wing media provocateur who has maintained influence in Trump's circle, is likely to be jailed during a crucial stage of the U.S. presidential campaign that pits former President Donald Trump against Democrat Joe Biden on Nov. 5.
The order by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington came after a federal appeals court last month rejected Bannon's bid to overturn his conviction for refusing a subpoena from Congress to investigate the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In 2022, Bannon was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents or testify before a Democratic-led House committee.
Bannon would become the second former senior Trump administration official to go to jail for refusing to cooperate with the committee. Former trade adviser Peter Navarro is currently serving a four-month sentence.
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Bannon was allowed to avoid serving his sentence while he appealed. Prosecutors decided to terminate the suspended sentence after three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Bannon's challenge to his conviction.
Bannon's lawyers urged Nichols to let Bannon go free, saying he could still appeal to the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. Bannon argued that his lawyers told him he did not have to comply with the subpoena and therefore he had no intent to commit a crime.
Bannon, who was no longer in the White House at the time, was part of a group of Trump advisers who sought to block the formal certification of Biden's victory in the 2020 election.
The congressional panel said he may have known about the event planned for Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
