Former President Trump aide Steve Bannon is already serving a prison sentence for defying a House subpoena. However, he continued to appeal his conviction to clear his record.
Musk and Bannon mentioned in release of Epstein files
The latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files mentions such prominent names as Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, and Peter Thiel.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on April 6 cleared the way for the Trump administration to overturn the contempt of Congress conviction of longtime President Trump ally Steve Bannon.
At the request of the Justice Department, the court effectively vacated the lower court’s decision that upheld the conviction and sent the case back to the district court, where the Justice Department asked for the case to be dismissed.
Bannon, currently the host of the popular podcast MAGA, was convicted in 2022 of defying a subpoena from a House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Bannon has already completed a four-month prison sentence, with the Supreme Court rejecting his bid to remain free pending appeal in 2024.
But Bannon continued to contest the conviction. And after Donald Trump became president, the Justice Department stopped defending it.
In such cases, it is not uncommon for the Supreme Court to dismiss the case.
The Trump administration told the Supreme Court that “the dismissal of this criminal case is in the interest of justice.”
President Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bannon and other allies as politically motivated. He pardoned about 1,600 people on charges related to the attack.
President Trump has previously pardoned Steve Bannon.
At the end of his first term as president, Trump pardoned Bannon as he awaited trial in New York on fraud charges related to another case, a border wall fundraiser. Bannon was one of four people accused in 2020 of defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in the crowdfunding “We Build the Wall” GoFundMe campaign to fund one of President Trump’s signature goals.
In 2022, a jury found Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress after he failed to respond to a Congressional subpoena.
Bannon said he was relying on the advice of his lawyers not to respond to a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol until other matters are resolved. Mr. Bannon believed Mr. Trump could protect himself from testimony by invoking executive privilege, which allows the president to keep some executive branch discussions secret.
Bannon insisted he had acted in good faith and did not cross the line of “deliberately” failing to respond.
Bannon also questioned the validity of the subpoena.
House lawyers argued that Mr. Bannon thumbed his nose at the committee and ignored subpoenas.
“Firestorm”
Lawmakers had sought to question Bannon, Trump’s political strategist who encouraged him to embrace populism during his 2016 campaign. That was in part because Mr. Bannon told officials from China on October 31, 2020, that even if he lost the election, there would be a “flame riot” and that Mr. Trump would falsely declare victory.
Bannon said on his podcast that former Vice President Mike Pence “spit on him,” meaning he no longer supports President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The committee described the comments as increasing pressure on Mr. Pence.
Bannon called President Trump at least twice on January 5, 2021, and predicted on a right-wing talk radio show that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
