Trump Administration Abandons Steve Bannon Conviction

The longtime Trump ally served four months in prison on contempt of Congress charges for refusing to testify to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The Trump administration signaled on Monday that it would abandon its efforts to uphold the criminal conviction of President Trump’s longtime adviser, Stephen K. Bannon.

Mr. Bannon has already served four months in prison as a result of his 2022 conviction for contempt of Congress for refusing to testify to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

An appeals court upheld his conviction, and Mr. Bannon had appealed to the Supreme Court. But on Monday, D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, told the justices that the Trump administration had determined “in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.” He asked the justices to send the case back to the lower court to be dismissed.

The practical effect of the move is limited, but the government’s dismissal of the indictment against him would effectively wipe out the conviction. It follows a pattern of Mr. Trump using the Justice Department to punish his perceived enemies and protect his friends, including by repeatedly granting clemency to allies and supporters and pardoning rioters charged in connection with Jan. 6.

In a statement, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Mr. Bannon’s conviction was the result of an “improper” House subpoena and should be vacated.

“This department will continue to undo the prior administration’s weaponization of the justice system,” he said.

Mr. Bannon’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Other key Trump aides cooperated with the committee, responding to subpoenas, providing documents or testifying, even though the president opposed its work. When Mr. Bannon defied a subpoena, the House voted to hold him in contempt and referred the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution.

Mr. Bannon pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury after a trial in Federal District Court in Washington in July 2022. On appeal, Mr. Bannon asserted that his lawyers had advised him to ignore the committee’s subpoena — a tactic known as an advice of counsel defense. Mr. Bannon also claimed that Mr. Trump himself had ordered him to defy demands from the committee.

Mr. Bannon was separately indicted during Mr. Trump’s first term, charged with misusing money he helped raise for a group backing Mr. Trump’s border wall. Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon in that case in 2021, before it went to trial.

Mr. Bannon, who served as the 2016 Trump campaign’s chief architect, was initially brought into the White House after Mr. Trump’s victory to work as a strategist and senior counselor. He soon returned to Breitbart News, the right-wing media platform he founded, and now hosts the podcast “War Room.”

In addition to Mr. Bannon, the Trump adviser Peter Navarro served four months in federal prison for similarly refusing to testify as part of a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack.

Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.

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