Steven Bannon has been ordered to report to prison on July 1 after a federal judge revoked his bail.
The political commentator and former advisor to President Donald Trump is currently appealing his October 2022 conviction for two counts of contempt after he refused to comply with a Congressional subpoena from the special committee investigating the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Bannon is now required to serve four months in prison.
“This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservative, shutting down President Trump,” Bannon said to reporters after his bail was revoked. “Not only are we winning, we are going to prevail… There is nothing that can shut me up.”
Judge Carl Nichols of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia announced on June 6 that he could “no longer conclude that [Bannon’s] appeal raises substantial questions of law” that could lead to the overturning of his conviction, per USA Today.
In May, the Department of Justice asked the court to compel Bannon to begin his prison sentence after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the 70-year-old’s appeal. Nichols had previously agreed to allow Bannon to remain out of jail during the course of his appeals.
“There is no longer a 'substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,'" prosecutors wrote, per ABC News.
In addition to his sentence, Bannon was also fined $6,500.
Peter Navarro, another advisor to President Trump who was convicted of two counts of contempt, is currently serving a four-month jail sentence in Florida. Prosecutors had originally sought a six-month jail sentence. The mandatory minimum sentence for the charge is one month.
“This is not about me,” said Navarro during his televised remarks in March before turning himself in. “One of the big stories is about what is really an unprecedented assault on the constitutional separation of powers and the doctrine of executive privileges. … When I walk in that jail today, the justice system – such as it is – will have done a crippling blow to the constitutional separation of powers.”
The news of Nichols’ order prompted an outpouring of support for Bannon online.
“They’re coming for everyone,” wrote Dan Lyman of BorderHawk News on X. “Plan accordingly.”
“Steve Bannon was just ordered to prison for ignoring a Congressional subpeona,” stated LibsofTikTok in a post. “Hunter Biden ignored a subpeona for months and wasn’t sentenced to prison.”
“It is with great sadness and anger that we observe the death of the judicial system in America,” wrote Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida on X. “Steve Bannon sought judicial review of the illegal demands of a runaway congressional committee, unlike any ever comprised. It was literally a matter of first impression. And they’re sending him to prison - not just to torture him but to torture us.”
“The ramifications of these actions will reverberate in a very dark way for a long time,” said the congressman.
