A former advisor to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, is mandated to report to prison at the start of the month after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request to delay the sentence while he appeals his conviction.
Bannon filed an emergency appeal to postpone his prison term last Friday. Earlier this month, Bannon was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols to report to prison by July 1 and begin serving his four-month sentence.
In October 2022, Bannon was sentenced to four months after being found guilty of defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. He has since been trying to appeal the court’s ruling while also requesting to remain out of prison in the process.
After Bannon’s sentencing, Nichols agreed to postpone his jail term while he continued to appeal his two contempt of Congress convictions.
However, he ordered Bannon to report to prison after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction last month.
Following Bannon’s emergency appeal, the Supreme Court ruled not to permit another delay on his sentence, which is supposed to begin this Monday. The court has not provided a vote breakdown in its decision to deny the request.
Prosecutors opposed Bannon’s emergency motion, telling the Supreme Court “he cannot make the demanding showing necessary to override the normal requirement that a convicted defendant begin serving his sentence.”
This sentencing comes after the former advisor to Trump was ordered by a New York State judge last summer to pay nearly $500,000 in legal fees to lawyers representing him in connection with numerous matters, including a criminal case alleging he defrauded donors contributing to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump had previously pardoned Bannon in regard to those allegations.
Bannon’s sentencing makes him the second Trump White House aide to serve prison time in connection with defying a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee. Peter Navarro, a former trade advisor to Trump, began his sentence in March after his emergency appeal to the Supreme Court was also denied.
