Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to Donald Trump, must report to prison by 1 July to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
The background: The order, by United States district judge Carl Nichols in Washington, DC, comes after a federal appeals court last month rejected Bannon’s bid to overturn his conviction for spurning a subpoena from a congressional panel that investigated the .
Bannon was of two misdemeanour counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents or testify to the Democratic-led House of Representatives committee.
Bannon has argued his lawyer advised him he didn’t have to comply with the subpoena and therefore did not intend to commit a crime. But Nichols said after the appeals court’s ruling, there was no longer justification to keep Bannon free.
Steve Bannon says he will fight the judge’s ruling that he must report to prison by 1 July. Source: AAP / Curtis Means/AP
Key quote: “I’ve got great lawyers, and we’re going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to,” Bannon told reporters.
What else to know: Bannon, who no longer worked in the White House at the time, was part of a group of Trump advisers who sought to derail formal certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
The congressional panel said he may have had knowledge of events planned for January 6 2021.
