Supreme Court clears path for Trump administration to drop Steve Bannon's contempt case
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the dismissal of charges against Steve Bannon. Bannon, an ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted under a federal law for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. After being sentenced to and serving four months in prison, a panel of three judges on the U.S. appeals court in Washington, D.C., upheld his criminal conviction in 2024. The Supreme Court vacated the appellate court's ruling and remanded the case to the trial court, where the Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the conviction and the indictment.
Bannon, a firebrand podcaster, was a key adviser to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and served as his chief White House strategist during his first term. After being released from the Danbury federal prison in October 2024, he resumed hosting his "War Room" podcast and has, on several occasions, portrayed his sentencing as being political. M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for Bannon, was quoted by Reuters as lauding the Supreme Court for vacating "an unjust conviction" and, in doing so, validating that "politics and prosecution don't mix."
Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who represents the Trump administration before the high court, separately said in a filing that the government deems that the "dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice." In his filing, Sauser argued that Bannon was not in contempt of the House due to the President's executive privilege of refusing to disclose certain information. "This Court should grant the petition for a writ of certiorari, vacate the judgment of the court of appeals, and remand the case to the district court for further consideration in light of the government’s pending motion to dismiss the indictment," the Solicitor General wrote.
Bannon was accused of being complicit in inciting violence by saying "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow" on his podcast a day before the January 6 riot that saw several Trump supporters breach the U.S. Capitol Building. According to the House committee, Bannon spoke with Trump at least twice and attended a planning meeting at a Washington hotel before the attack. Notably, immediately after taking office for a second term, President Trump granted a blanket pardon to nearly all January 6 defendants, including his former lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
