Trump ally Steve Bannon files last-ditch motion to avoid jail time
Attorneys for Steve Bannon filed an emergency motion Tuesday in a bid to keep the former Trump White House chief strategist out of prison as he seeks to appeal his conviction for flouting a subpoena from a congressional committee that probed the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Bannon’s counsel of record R. Trent McCotter submitted the filing to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals requesting his client’s release before a July 1 deadline to surrender himself and serve a four-month sentence.
“If the panel decision stands, there will be far-reaching consequences, including separation-of-powers concerns,” wrote McCotter and other attorneys from DC firm Boyden Gray PLLC representing Bannon, 70.
“Before the prosecution of Mr. Bannon, it had been 50 years since the government convinced a jury to convict someone for not adequately responding to a congressional subpoena—and there has certainly been no shortage of disputes over congressional subpoenas during that time,” they said.
Bannon’s defense team also claimed prosecutors “pursued a novel and aggressive theory of liability” and suggested they may appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court.
The lawyers asked for a ruling from the DC appeals court by June 18.
Last month, a three-judge panel upheld Bannon’s July 2022 conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress for rejecting a subpoena to testify before the House Select January 6th Committee.
DC US District Judge Carl Nichols on Thursday ordered the Trump ally to serve his jail sentence a little more than a week before his former boss will be sentenced after a Manhattan jury convicted him on 34 counts of business fraud for hiding evidence of a hush money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election.
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro filed a similar last-ditch motion to avoid jail in March after he was also convicted of defying a subpoena from the January 6th select committee.
Navarro, 74, surrendered himself at a federal prison in Miami days after the motion, telling reporters he would “proudly” serve a four-month sentence.
Trump and Bannon have had a tumultuous relationship — with the former president having fired the strategist early in August 2017 — but the two later reconciled and both trumpeted allegations that the 2020 election was stolen.
Trump, 77, pardoned Bannon just before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2021, for federal fraud and money laundering charges related to a private fundraiser his ex-chief strategist held, ostensibly to fund construction of the US-Mexico border wall.
That case had been slated for trial in May 2021.
Attorneys for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
