The Justice Department on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to reject Steve Bannon’s latest attempt to avoid prison after being found guilty of contempt of Congress two years ago. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo
June 27 (UPI) — The justice department is urging the supreme court to reject Steve Bannon’s request to stay out of prison as Republicans make filings to support the former Donald Trump adviser being out on bail as he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction.
Bannon, a former advisor to Donald Trump in 2017 when the real estate mogul was president, was found guilty July 2022 on two counts of deifying a subpoena to compel testimony and hand over documents in the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection of the U.S. Capitol.
But the right-wing podcaster has been trying to avoid reporting to prison since being convicted, and has turned to the Supreme Court as a last-ditch attempt after previous efforts fell before various judges.
Bannon’s legal team is arguing for the Supreme Court to allow him out on bail amid further appeals on the grounds the lower courts erred when they interpreted “willfully … default[ing]” on a congressional subpoena to mean that he understood he was breaking the law by not abiding by it.
His attorneys state that this is not the case, that Bannon “relied in good faith on his attorney’s advice not to respond to a subpoena issued by a House select committee until executive privilege issues were resolved,” and that the courts erred by precluding him from introducing evidence to prove that point.
The Justice Department on Wednesday urged the high-court justices in a filing to reject Bannon’s request, stating there was never a question of executive privilege having been granted for the information the select committee sought.
Bannon worked in the White House for seven months in 2017, and the information requested by the select committee was from 2020 to 2021.
Also, Trump never invoked any privilege before the committee and President Joe Biden also waived any applicable privilege that could bar his participation in the investigation, the Justice Department said in its filing.
Concerning Bannon’s “willfully” defense, the Justice Department argued that the mental state for contempt of Congress “requires only a deliberate or intentional act, and does not recognize a defense for good-faith reliance on the advice of counsel.”
“He cannot make the demanding showing necessary to override the normal requirement that a convicted defendant begin serving his sentence,” the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department’s filing came as Republicans were coming to Bannon’s support.
Hours earlier, American First Legal, a Trump-aligned conservative public interest group founded in 2021, filed an amicus brief on behalf of Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., questioning the legality of the select committee that issued the subpoenas.
On Tuesday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had told FOX News that they were working on filing an amicus brief in support of Bannon.
The bipartisan select committee was investigating the causes of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, and it accused Bannon of having information about circumstances that led to the Capitol assault.
After defying the subpoenas, the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in October 2021. A federal grand jury then indicted him the next month. In July 2022, he was found guilty and was sentenced to four months behind bars that October.
Earlier this month, the court ordered him to report to prison on July 1.
Bannon is the second person convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from Jan. 6 House select committee. Former Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro is currently serving a four-month prison sentence in Miami.
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