On Thursday, a federal judge ordered Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, to surrender by July 1 to serve a four-month prison sentence for violating a subpoena to testify before the committee of the House of Representatives investigating the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
After Mr. Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in October 2022, Judge Carl J. Nichols, who has overseen the case, allowed him to remain free while he appeals. But last month, Mr. Bannon lost the first round of that challenge when a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that his guilty verdict for ignoring the House committee’s demand for his testimony was justified.
Mr. Bannon’s lawyers have vowed to ask the full appeals court to reconsider the panel’s decision. Judge Nichols said Mr Bannon would have to serve his sentence in less than four weeks unless the full appeal court takes up the case and issues its own decision to suspend the execution of the sentence.
Another former adviser to Mr. Trump is already serving a prison sentence for refusing to take part in the House committee’s sweeping investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
In March, Peter Navarro, who once worked as Mr. Trump’s trade adviser, reported to federal prison in Miami to begin serving his own four-month sentence after a jury found him guilty of contempt of Congress for ignoring a committee subpoena.
Mr Bannon’s legal problems are likely to continue even after – or even during – his time in prison.
A few months after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress in Washington, prosecutors in Manhattan accused him of misusing money he raised for a group supporting Mr. Trump’s border wall. In his final hours in office in 2021, Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon in a separate federal case involving similar allegations.
Mr. Bannon’s fraud trial is scheduled to take place later this year in the same Manhattan courthouse where Mr. Trump himself was recently convicted of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his 2016 presidential candidacy.
Source link
2024-06-06 16:55:31
www.nytimes.com