WASHINGTON — An appeals court on Thursday denied former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s request to remain out of prison while appealing his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.
The three-judge panel for the D.C. Circuit denied Bannon’s request in a 2-1 ruling, with two judges deciding that the arguments made in Bannon’s request do not present a “substantial question” of law that could reverse his conviction.
“Bannon’s proposal—that to prove willful default the government must establish that the witness knew that his conduct was unlawful—cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s approach to the statute,” said the order by U.S. Court of Appeals Judges Cornelia Pillard and Bradley Garcia.
A third judge, Justin Walker, dissented from the order, writing that arguments about Bannon’s state of mind when he refused to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee presented a “close question” that could possibly be decided in Bannon’s favor by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“That close question may well have mattered at Bannon’s trial,” Walker wrote.
Bannon was ordered earlier this month to report to prison on July 1. In previous filings before the D.C. Circuit, his lawyers expressed their intention to seek relief from the Supreme Court if the appeals court panel ruled against them.
Bannon’s team filed the unsuccessful emergency motion on June 11 asking the federal appeals court to overrule a lower court’s previous ruling that he must report to prison in July.
Bannon’s lawyer Trent McCotter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
A lawyer who has previously represented Bannon, David Schoen, said that he “quit the case last Tuesday” after seeing the motion at issue had been filed, noting that he “had nothing to do with the motion.”
An appeals court in May upheld Bannon’s conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress after he defied a subpoena for documents related to the Jan. 6 attack. He was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison.
