A federal judge on Thursday ordered Steve Bannon to report to prison by July 1, giving the former Donald Trump adviser a short window to get a higher court’s intervention.
Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 after failing to provide documents and testimony to the House Select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack. He was sentenced to four months in prison.
The federal judge presiding over the case, Carl Nichols, had initially paused the sentence while Bannon appealed the conviction.
Last month, however, a DC Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously rejected several challenges Bannon made to the case, and prosecutors immediately asked Nichols to send Bannon to prison to begin serving his sentence.
Nichols said Thursday that, given the appeals court ruling, he did not believe the basis he had for pausing Bannon’s sentence “exists any longer.”
The judge, who was appointed by Trump, said that he concluded that he had the authority to lift the hold on Bannon’s sentence, even as an appeal of conviction will continue.
In filings before Thursday’s hearing, defense attorneys for Bannon argued the Nichols doesn’t have the authority to put him in prison before allowing him to exhaust his options to appeal – including with the US Supreme Court.
“There is no basis for considering the removal of the stay of the sentence pending appeal until the appeals process has fully run its course,” the Bannon team said.
Another member of Trump’s inner circle who was convicted for not participating in the House January 6 probe, White House aide Peter Navarro, is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for his 2023 conviction.
This story has been updated with additional details.
