The DC Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Steve Bannon’s criminal contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House January 6 committee.
Writing for the unanimous decision, Judge Brad Garcia affirmed Bannon deliberately disobeyed the subpoena and failed to provide a “persuasive argument” for doing so.
“Bannon failed to comply with the subpoena, and his failure to comply was willful,” Circuit Judge Brad Garcia wrote.
Garcia wrote, “Our decision in Licavoli directly rejects Bannon’s challenge.”
The court rejected Bannon’s “advice of counsel” defense, noting deliberate non-compliance constitutes willfulness under law.
“In this appeal, Bannon does not dispute that he deliberately refused to comply with the Select Committee’s subpoena in that he knew what the subpoena required and intentionally did not respond; his nonresponse, in other words, was no accident,” the court document read. “Instead, Bannon challenges the contempt of Congress charges on the ground that he reasonably believed—based on advice of counsel—that he did not have to respond.”
“Trump did not communicate an intent to invoke executive privilege to the Committee, and Bannon never raised executive privilege as an affirmative defense to the contempt charges in district court.”
It dismissed other claims including that the committee was improperly composed and that Bannon was following Trump’s legal team directives, noting Trump never invoked executive privilege.
Bannon has a week to appeal before potentially facing a four-month prison sentence and fine.
The decision maintains the committee was justified in seeking Bannon’s testimony and documents due to his January 5 comments and election overturn discussions.
