Steve Bannon, a former White House advisor to Donald Trump, was ordered to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving his sentence for contempt of Congress
AFP

Steve Bannon, one of Donald Trump's former White House strategists, is about to begin his four-month prison sentence after he defied a congressional subpoena. He will be reporting to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

According to CNN, Bannon will be the second of Trump's former aides to be imprisoned for a conviction of contempt of Congress. The first was Peter Navarro, who has already started serving his four-month sentence earlier this year.

Both Bannon and Navarro were convicted for not heeding subpoenas from Congress, particularly from the now-defunct House Select Committee that investigated the incident on January 6, 2021. The Supreme Court denied Bannon's attempt to get a favorable response that would have allowed him to avoid reporting to prison. Meanwhile, Bannon is challenging the conviction in Washington, DC, before the federal appeals court.

According to The Hill, Bannon was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 when he defied a subpoena from the House committee investigating the attack on Capitol Hill. For two years, the judge allowed Bannon to delay his sentence while he appealed in court.

However, in May, Judge Brad Garcia upheld Bannon's conviction. Garcia, writing for the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, comprised of three judges, noted that "a witness cannot defend against a contempt of Congress charge based on an affirmative defense that they were able, but failed, to."

Bannon stated in CNN's report that he did not thumb his nose at the House Committee. Instead, he simply relied on the advice of his lawyers, who told him not to respond to the subpoena until lawmakers were able to work out Trump's claim of executive privilege in the matter. The judge handling his conviction did not allow him to argue this point with the jury.

Days before his prison sentence, Bannon has been busy with his schedule. He tried but failed to convince Trump to skip CNN's presidential debate last week.

"I'm going to be more powerful in prison than I am now," Bannon told media reporters, including CNN.

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