Steve Bannon, a long-time confidant of former US President Donald Trump, has failed in his attempt to delay the start of a four-month prison sentence for ignoring a subpoena by Congress. An appeals court rejected a corresponding request from Bannon’s lawyers on Thursday.
They had asked the judges to keep their client free while he appeals his conviction. However, a majority of the panel found that Bannon’s case did not justify a deviation from the basic rule that defendants must serve their prison sentence after being found guilty.
Bannon is now expected to appeal to the US Supreme Court. The 70-year-old is expected to report to a prison by July 1 to serve his four-month prison sentence.
Steve Bannon was convicted in 2022 of two counts of contempt of Congress: for refusing to testify before the committee investigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and for refusing to produce documents related to his involvement in Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
From January 2017 to August 2017, he was chief strategist in the White House under then-President Trump. He also ran the “Breitbart News Network” website, which is classified as right-wing populist to right-wing extremist.
