A federal appeals court panel rejected former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s bid to delay the July 1 start to his prison sentence for defying a subpoena issued by Congress’ January 6th select committee investigating the 2021 U.S Capitol attack, CNN reported.
After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld Banon’s conviction, earlier this month the U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, nominated by Trump, granted the prosecution’s request to send Bannon to prison.
The former Trump aide’s lawyers requested the appeals court to delay his prison sentence while he tries to fight the conviction at a Supreme Court level.
“The government seeks to imprison Mr. Bannon for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues,” his attorneys said of their client, who hosts a conservative podcast, in the filings.
They added that if he is made to serve his sentence now, it would “also effectively bar Mr. Bannon from serving as a meaningful advisor in the ongoing national campaign,” CNN reported.
Prosecutors resisted, claiming in a filing that “Bannon’s role in political discourse is simply not a relevant factor” under the federal statute dictating when a defendant’s appeal can delay his sentence. “Bannon also cannot reconcile his claim for special treatment with the bedrock principle of equal justice under the law.”
The panel voted 2-1 with Judge Cornelia Pillard, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, and Judge Bradley Garcia, a President Joe Biden nominee, in the majority. The panel said Bannon’s case “does not warrant a departure from the general rule” that defendants begin their sentence after being convicted, CBS reported.
Bannon is expected to report to prison at the start of next month to begin serving his four-month sentence. Without Supreme Court intervention, he will serve his sentence at a low-security prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut, CNN reported.
