BREAKING: Bannon’s Jan. 6 Contempt Conviction Upheld, Paving Way For 4-Month Jail Sentence

Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress conviction was upheld by a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Friday. The Donald Trump ally was previously sentenced to four months in prison, a sentence that was delayed pending the outcome of his appeal.

The news was reported by Politico senior legal affairs reporter Kyle Cheney, who noted that the ruling was by a unanimous three-judge panel.

The judges rejected Bannon’s appeal of his conviction for defying a subpoena to testify before the congressional subcommittee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in 2022 on one count for his refusal to appear before Congress and another count for failing to produce documents requested by the subcommittee.

At the time, Bannon blamed his noncompliance with the subpoena on bad counsel from his lawyers. Bannon briefly served as an advisor in Donald Trump’s White House.

Bannon’s conviction being upheld paves the way for him to actually serve his four month prison sentence.

According to Bannon, he did not comply with the subpoena from Congress based on executive privilege issues raised by Trump and his lawyer.

“The facts of this case show that Mr. Bannon’s conduct was based on his good-faith reliance on his lawyer’s advice,” his legal team wrote when attempting to appeal the conviction.

The court, however, found that argument unconvincing, pointing to the clear language in the contempt of Congress statute, 2 U.S.C. § 192, regarding its prohibition on “willfully” failing to respond to a congressional subpoena (citations omitted):

Bannon insists that “willfully” should be interpreted to require bad faith and argues that his noncompliance does not qualify because his lawyer advised him not to respond to the subpoena. This court, however, has squarely held that “willfully” in Section 192 means only that the defendant deliberately and intentionally refused to comply with a congressional subpoena, and that this exact “advice of counsel” defense is no defense at all. As both this court and the Supreme Court have repeatedly explained, a contrary rule would contravene the text of the contempt statute and hamstring Congress’s investigatory authority. Because we have no basis to depart from that binding precedent, and because none of Bannon’s other challenges to his convictions have merit, we affirm.

Warch above via CNN.