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Jimmy Williams
A federal appeals court panel has upheld the criminal conviction of Steve Bannon, a close ally of Donald Trump, for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol attack.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected Bannon’s challenges to his contempt of Congress conviction, affirming his four-month prison sentence issued in 2022. Bannon remains free while pursuing his appeal.
Bannon was found guilty of contempt for refusing to participate in a deposition and withholding documents related to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Initially, Bannon argued that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of executive privilege. However, the court found this claim dubious since Bannon was a private citizen at the time of the riot after being fired from the White House in 2017.
Bannon’s defense maintained that he acted in good faith to avoid violating executive privilege, requesting a Trump lawyer’s presence during his testimony, which the committee denied.
Bannon’s lawyers contended that the subpoena was invalid and sought testimony and records from committee members and staff to support his defense. However, the appeals court dismissed these challenges, finding them lacking in merit.
“We conclude that none of the information sought in the trial subpoenas was relevant to the elements of the contempt offense, nor to any affirmative defense Bannon was entitled to present at trial,” the judges wrote.
According to the judges, the information sought in the trial subpoenas was irrelevant to Bannon’s contempt offense or any potential defense he could present.
Another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, was also convicted of contempt and began serving his four-month sentence in March. Navarro claimed he couldn’t cooperate due to Trump’s executive privilege, but courts rejected this argument, as Navarro couldn’t prove Trump had invoked it.
Bannon’s conviction underscores the ongoing legal battles stemming from the Capitol attack investigation and the challenges facing those refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the House committee.
