Steve Bannon asks Supreme Court to keep him out of jail as he appeals conviction

WASHINGTON — Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to former President Donald Trump, on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free on bail as he appeals his two contempt of Congress convictions.

The request came one day after a divided court denied Bannon an emergency motion asking for his release during his ongoing appeal. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols earlier ordered him to surrender by July 1 to start his four-month prison sentence.

In 2022, a jury found Bannon guilty of failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He had been ordered to testify and provide documents and declined to do either.

He has said that he believed Trump planned to invoke executive privilege in the case and that he declined to respond to the subpoena on the advice of his then-attorney.

In a filing Friday with the Supreme Court, Bannon’s lawyer argued that his client has proved that he is not a flight risk and repeated claims that Bannon didn’t understand that what he was doing was against the law.

He said that without relief from the Supreme Court, “Bannon will be forced to serve his entire term before this Court has the opportunity to review the issue.”

His lawyers argued in court records that there is a “strong public interest” in keeping him out of jail in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, as Bannon is a top adviser to Trump’s campaign, The Associated Press reported.

Nichols earlier delayed the start of Bannon’s prison term but ordered him to turn himself in after a panel with the Washington D.C. appeals court upheld his convictions last month. Bannon’s attorney had asked the judge to allow him to remain free until his case could go before the full appellate court or the Supreme Court, Bloomberg News reported, but Nichols ruled that the appellate panel had settled the issue.

Bannon was the first of two Trump aides to be convicted of contempt of Congress charges. In March, former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro began a four-month prison sentence after a jury convicted him for defying a subpoena from the same House select committee.

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