Donald Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon has been ordered to prison for a four-month sentence that must start by July 1, a judge has said.
The right-wing podcaster, 70, was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to appear before a committee investigating the Capitol riots in January 2021.
Mr Bannon was also convicted over failing to provide documents about his involvement with Mr Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to president Joe Biden.
Mr Bannon has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has vowed to fight this latest ruling.
Outside the court on Thursday, he was heard to say: “I've got great lawyers, and we're going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to.
"There's not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up.”
“[These legal challenges are] about shutting down the Maga movement,” he added in reference to Mr Trump’s ‘make America great again’ brand.
Mr Bannon was a special adviser to Mr Trump during his first election campaign in 2016 and then a chief strategist during his presidency before he quit in August 2017.
Since the 2022 conviction, there have been legal battles around Mr Bannon and federal judge Carl Nichols on Thursday granted a Justice Department request to force his sentence.
The judge had been appointed by Mr Trump and had initially allowed Mr Bannon to remain free while he challenged the conviction.
Mr Bannon’s lawyer David Schoen has said that his client should be given the opportunity to seek all lines of appeal before he is put behind bars.
He told reporters: “In this country, we don't send anyone to prison if they believe that they were doing something that complied with the law.”
