- Written by Holly Honderich
- in washington
image source, Getty Images
A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of former President Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
The decision could soon send Bannon, 70, to prison after years of legal wrangling.
He was convicted in 2022 of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify or provide documents to the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
Mr. Bannon's lawyer said he intended to file a new appeal, adding that “important constitutional issues are at stake.”
Mr Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a $6,500 (£5,200) fine.
But the right-wing podcaster, who denies any criminal wrongdoing, was able to remain out of prison on bail while contesting his conviction.
Mr. Bannon's lawyers have characterized the incident as politically motivated and said Mr. Bannon was trying to negotiate rather than ignore the committee's subpoena.
Bannon himself faced legal challenges when he refused to testify before a House committee investigating a 2021 attack aimed at preventing Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. He claims he was following advice.
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected Bannon's claims as “in direct conflict with settled law.”
“This very ‘advice of an attorney’ defense is no defense at all,” wrote Judge Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee, representing the court, a committee also appointed by Trump and Obama.
Bannon was not ordered to begin his four-month term immediately. He has seven days to file another appeal.
His attorney, David Schoen, said he would ask the 11-member D.C. Court of Appeals to hear the case.
Schoen claims that Donald Trump has invoked executive privilege, a legal concept that allows the president to keep some communications secret, and that Bannon would be breaking the law if he testified before Congress. He argued that it would be.
Mr. Schoen said Mr. Bannon's lawyers had advised Mr. Bannon “in no uncertain terms that as a matter of law he is not authorized to respond in any way to the subpoena.”
Another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, was sent to prison in March after being found guilty of contempt of Congress.
In his 2021 memoir, “In Trump Time,” Navarro said he was the architect of the strategy to contest the results of the 2020 election that made Joe Biden president.
Bannon was a key figure behind Trump's successful 2016 campaign and later became White House chief strategist.
He resigned from his post in August 2017 following a violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Even after his resignation, the combative podcaster was considered one of Trump's biggest allies.
