Steve Bannon to appeal prison sentence before DC judge

Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon will appear before a federal appeals court panel in October to make his case on why he should stay out of prison after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress in July of 2022, according to court documents filed on Monday.

Bannon was sentenced to 120 days in prison for not complying with a subpoena from the January 6 House Select Committee, but a judge suspended his sentence pending appeal.



Bannon's attorneys filed an appeal in May, claiming he was denied the ability to explain his reasons for not complying with the subpoena during his trial, which violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights under the US Constitution.

Bannon's lawyer, David Schoen, told the United States Court of Appeals that former President Donald Trump invoked executive privilege on Oct. 5, 2021, preventing Bannon from testifying and that his lawyer, Robert Costello, informed him he couldn't waive it.

Schoen argued that the trial judge erred in banning Bannon from presenting evidence about executive privilege and his lawyer's counsel, violating constitutional guarantees against self-incrimination and a fair trial, according to USA Today.

"The lower court erred by prohibiting Mr. Bannon from putting his defenses before the jury in this case, in violation of his rights under the 5th and 6th Amendments to the United States Constitution," Schoen said.

Bannon was found guilty in 2022 for refusing to comply with a subpoena that was issued in September 2021, which was looking to uncover communications between Bannon and former President Donald Trump in the lead-up to and surrounding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

It was the committee's contention that Trump incited a riot and therefore they had the homes of former Trump White House associates searched and their devices seized in an attempt to uncover communications of nearly everyone who was close to the President at the time.