Former White House senior strategist Steve Bannon arrives at the Federal District Court House for the fifth day of his contempt of Congress trial on July 22, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
There is officially no more road for Steve Bannon to roam after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected his last-ditch effort to stay out of prison after he was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress roughly two years ago.
The denial was released in a one-page order from Chief Justice John Roberts.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Bannon was convicted in July 2022 and ordered to prison in October 2022 but it was the Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols who agreed to stay his sentence on appeal. That appeal was rejected and after several months, Nichols finally ordered Bannon to begin his 4-month sentence, finding that there was no basis to delay it any further.
In short order, Bannon pressed his luck with an appeal on that ruling and lost again. His last best hope to evade prison was a favorable decision from the Supreme Court, which was considered somewhat of a pipe dream to begin with, especially in light of what happened to Bannon’s cohort and Donald Trump’s onetime White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Navarro, who said he created a strategy to overturn Trump’s electoral defeat in 2020 with Bannon known as the Green Bay Sweep, was charged and convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress as well after he refused to comply with the Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena.
And like Bannon, after a concerted effort on appeal, Navarro pleaded with the Supreme Court to keep him out of jail while he fought his conviction. But every one of the aforementioned appeals similarly failed and the high court would not hear Navarro’s arguments either after lower courts rejected them. Notably, Navarro even pointed to Bannon’s freedom on appeal this May as he was on the cusp of facing his own sentence.
Navarro was ordered to report to jail on March 19. His four-month sentence will end in mid-July. Bannon will report to prison on July 1.
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