WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal case against Trump ally Steve Bannon over his failure to respond to congressional subpoenas.
Although Bannon was convicted and served jail time, he and the Trump administration are now seeking to have the case thrown out after the fact, in what would be a mostly symbolic outcome.
Acting on Bannon's appeal of his conviction, the court sent the case back to a district court judge in Washington, wiping out an appeals court ruling that upheld the jury verdict. In February, the Trump administration, which took over the case from the Biden administration, said it planned to dismiss the case after concluding it was "in the interests of justice." Such a move would toss out the conviction.
"This case should never have been brought, and we’re delighted that the decision affirming Mr. Bannon’s unlawful conviction has finally been vacated,” Michael Buschbacher, one of Bannon’s lawyers, said in an email.
Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with the subpoenas, which sought documents and testimony related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by President Donald Trump's supporters.
Bannon already served his four-month sentence in 2024 after losing his initial appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In addition to jail time, he was fined $6,500.
At the time, the Supreme Court rejected Bannon's last-ditch bid to avoid serving his sentence.
Bannon's legal arguments include that he, in good faith, believed he couldn’t comply with the subpoenas because Trump had invoked executive privilege, which concerns the right of presidents to withhold sensitive communications. As such, prosecutors had failed to show Bannon had acted unlawfully, his lawyers argued.
Since taking office for his second term, Trump and his allies have sought to investigate and sometimes prosecute those who brought criminal cases against him, and he has pardoned hundreds of people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack.
