Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon is headed to prison after an appeals court upheld his contempt of Congress conviction.
In 2022 he was given a four-month sentence for refusing to testify in a congressional investigation into the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
But it was stayed while he appealed, saying he acted in good faith following legal advice.
The decision came on Friday.
“Bannon insists that ‘intentionally’ should be interpreted as demanding bad faith and argues that his failure to comply does not qualify because his attorney advised him not to respond to the subpoena,” Judge Bradley Garcia wrote.
Bannon speaks to the media as he arrives at federal court to be sentenced on October 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.
A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday upheld Bannon’s conviction for defying a subpoena from a congressional panel that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
But, he continued, the court’s position is that “intentionally” only means deliberately.
“Because we have no basis to depart from that binding precedent, and because none of Bannon’s other challenges to his conviction have merit, we assert.”
Bannon was one of a series of Trump allies who refused to obey a subpoena to testify before the House investigation into the Jan. 6 violence, claiming that ‘executive privilege’ protected conversations and other information related to the presidency.
The House charged him with contempt in a largely party-line vote in October 2021.
Bannon joined Trump’s campaign in 2016 and came to the White House as chief strategist.
But he lost a power struggle and was soon overthrown. He has since become a key voice in Trump’s MAGA movement.
Peter Navarro, another Trump ally, reported to a federal prison in Miami last month, becoming the first former White House official to be jailed for contempt of Congress.
Bannon is seen in the State Dining Room of the White House in February 2017 with President Donald Trump and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk.