Former Trump Adviser Steve Bannon Ordered to Prison for Contempt of Congress
A federal judge in the United States has ordered former top adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, to report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. US District Judge Carl Nichols' order on Thursday came after a federal appeals court last month rejected Bannon's bid to overturn his conviction. Bannon was convicted of contempt in July 2022 for defying a subpoena to testify before a congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. Bannon, 70, will likely be behind bars for a critical stretch of the US presidential campaign as Trump faces Democratic President Joe Biden in what is expected to be a tight November election. Bannon plans to ask the US Supreme Court to intervene, portraying his prosecution as politically motivated. He stated outside the courthouse that 'There's not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up,' predicting Trump's victory on November 5th in an 'amazing landslide.' Bannon will be the second former top official from Trump's White House to go to prison for refusing to cooperate with the congressional committee investigating the 2021 Capitol attack, with former trade adviser Peter Navarro already serving a four-month term since March. Bannon, who was not working in the White House during the Capitol attack, was part of a group of Trump advisers allegedly attempting to derail the certification of Biden's election victory. The congressional panel indicated he may have had knowledge of events planned for January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters breached the Capitol. Meanwhile, Trump faces two criminal indictments related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, to which he has pleaded not guilty, portraying them as part of a witch hunt to sabotage his reelection bid. Despite the legal challenges, Trump retains significant support within the Republican Party and is expected to be nominated as the GOP's 2024 presidential candidate at the upcoming national convention in July.
Related Sources: