John Kruzel
Washington: The US Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for the Justice Department to move forward by throwing out the case in which Steve Bannon, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted after defying a congressional subpoena.
The justices overturned a lower court’s decision to uphold Bannon’s 2022 sentence by refusing to hand over documents or testify to a congressional panel investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the White House by Trump supporters.
Trump’s Justice Department, in urging the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s decision, told the justices in court papers that it had determined that dismissing Bannon’s case “is in the interest of justice.” The department had already filed a petition to quash the case at the trial court level.
The Supreme Court, in a brief unsigned order, sent the case back to the lower court for further consideration “due to a pending motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Bannon was convicted by a jury in Washington of two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to provide documents or testimony to the Democratic-led House of Representatives committee investigating the Capitol attack.
The protesters had tried to block congressional ratification of Joe Biden’s unsuccessful 2020 Republican presidential nomination. Bannon called the House committee’s investigation and the charges brought against him by the Justice Department during Biden’s presidency politically motivated.
Bannon, 72, served as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and his chief White House strategist in 2017 during Trump’s first term before a fallout between them that was later contained.
At the sentencing hearing in the case, prosecutor JP Cooney said that Bannon chose to “thumb his nose at Congress.” Bannon is “not above the law, and that’s what makes this case so important,” Cooney said.
After the Supreme Court in June 2024 denied Bannon’s request to keep him out of prison while his appeals were pending, he served four months in a minimum-security federal facility in Danbury, Connecticut. Bannon was released a week before Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Bannon pretended to be a political prisoner and told reporters after his release, “I’m far from broken. I’ve been empowered by my four months in Danbury federal prison.” Bannon resumed hosting his “War Room” podcast.
Radical, Bannon helped define the right-wing “America First” politics and radical opposition to immigration that have helped define Trump’s presidency. Bannon has played an important role in the right-wing media and has promoted right-wing candidates and candidates in the United States and abroad.
According to a House committee, Bannon spoke with Trump at least twice the day before the January 6 attack, attended a planning meeting at a Washington hotel, and said on his podcast that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2024 upheld Bannon’s conviction, leading to his appeal to the Supreme Court.
Bannon’s lawyers have raised various legal arguments against the subpoena, including issues related to executive privilege, the legal rule that allows the president to keep certain communications private, and the authority of a congressional committee to issue the subpoena.
Bannon has faced other legal issues as well. Bannon pleaded guilty in New York state court in February 2025 to a fraud charge after being accused by prosecutors of defrauding donors in 2019 in a private fundraising effort to support Trump’s wall on the US-Mexico border. Bannon avoided prison in the case.
Trump in 2021 pardoned Bannon after he was indicted on federal charges also related to border wall funding.
Reuters
