Steve Bannon May Be Going to Jail

Steve Bannon, a previous White House chief strategist for former President Donald Trump, had the appeal of his contempt of Congress conviction rejected on Friday by a panel of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judges.

Bannon was convicted by a federal jury in July 2022 of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for willfully defying a subpoena to testify in front of the January 6 House Select Committee, which investigated the U.S. Capitol riot that erupted as Congress tried to certify President Joe Biden's election victory on January 6, 2021.

Bannon appealed the ruling based on the grounds that he said he reasonably believed, based on the advice of his lawyer, that he did not have to respond to the committee's subpoena. He argued that the contempt of Congress statute, which makes it illegal to "willfully" fail to respond to a congressional subpoena, requires the defendant to know that his actions were unlawful, which he claims he did not.

The appellate judges' opinion, however, states that the U.S. D.C. District Court concluded that the law "requires proof only that the defendant deliberately and intentionally did not respond."

Bannon's attorney David Schoen, who represented former President Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial for his actions surrounding the Capitol riot, told Newsweek via email on Friday that Bannon will ask the full D.C. Circuit bench to hear his case.

"Today's decision is wrong as a matter of law and it reflects a very dangerous view of the threshold for criminal liability for any defendant in our country and for future political abuses of the congressional hearing process," Schoen said.

Bannon's conviction and four-month jail sentence were affirmed by the appellate court. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols suspended Bannon's sentence while he appealed the case, meaning he has not yet gone to prison. Bannon still has two options to try to avoid jail—he can ask the full bench of the appellate court to hear his case, as Schoen says he plans to do, or he can petition the U.S. Supreme Court to review it.

After an arguments hearing before the appellate court in November 2023, Schoen told reporters, "This case is as clear as day that the conviction has to be overturned." He added: "Mr. Bannon acted as his lawyer told him to act, and in the only way he understood the law permitted him to act with respect to the subpoena."

On January 6, 2021, Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to stop Congress from certifying the election following claims by Trump and his allies that Biden's 2020 election victory was stolen via widespread voter fraud. There is no evidence to support Trump's claims.

For hours, a large crowd targeted law enforcement officers and breached the U.S. Capitol. Eventually, Trump told his supporters to go home and Biden's win was certified in the early morning of January 7.

A day before the riot, on January 5, 2021, Bannon, a conservative media personality who continues to make claims that Trump won the 2020 election, predicted on a podcast that "all hell is going to break lose tomorrow." Bannon's prediction was cited in the U.S. D.C. Circuit Court's opinion.

Additionally, the filing read: "Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Based on these reports, the Select Committee believed that Bannon had information relevant to its investigation."

Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser for Trump who was also convicted of contempt of Congress, is currently serving a four-month sentence after going to prison in March.

Update 5/10/24, 3:58 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from attorney David Schoen.