CNN
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A federal judge on Thursday ordered former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon to report to prison by July 1, giving him a brief reprieve to seek higher court intervention.
Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress in 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison for failing to submit documents and testimony to a House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Federal Judge Carl Nichols, who is presiding over the case, initially suspended the sentence while Bannon appealed his conviction.
But last month, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected several objections Bannon made to the case, and prosecutors immediately asked Judge Nichols to send Bannon to prison to serve his sentence.
Judge Nichols said on Thursday that in light of the appeal court’s ruling, he believed there was “no longer any basis” to suspend Bannon’s sentence.
The judge, who was appointed by President Trump, said he concluded he had the authority to lift the stay on Bannon’s sentence even as his appeal of the conviction continues.
Shortly after the hearing ended, Bannon vowed to fight his contempt of Congress conviction “all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.”
Bannon also claimed, without evidence, that the Justice Department’s charges against him were intended to “shut down the MAGA movement, to shut down grassroots conservatives, to shut down President Trump.”
“Nothing can silence me, nothing can silence me. You can build prisons and jails and they’re not going to silence me,” he told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Washington.
“We intend to win in the Supreme Court,” he added.
During the hearing, Bannon’s lawyer, David Schoen, argued that his client should be able to stay out of jail until the Supreme Court rules on the case, and said he plans to file a request by June 24 for the case to be heard by the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Prosecutor John Crabb said Bannon did not meet the legal standard to avoid prison while his case is appealed. Crabb pointed to the failed attempt by Peter Navarro, another former Trump adviser indicted for failing to comply with a Jan. 6 subpoena from a House committee, to suspend his sentence. The attempt was rejected by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court.
Nichols pointed to the fact that Navarro’s case raises different issues and that ultimately three appeals court judges “wholeheartedly” rejected the arguments asserted in Bannon’s case. Nichols noted that the members of the D.C. Circuit panel hearing Bannon’s case could have stated in their concurring or dissenting opinions that they had concerns about the important precedents that Bannon was seeking to overturn in his case, but that no judge on the panel made such a statement.
With just under a month until his trial, Bannon could file an emergency motion with the Court of Appeals or even the Supreme Court to seek an extension to his sentence.
After Judge Nichols issued her order, Judge Shawn again tried to persuade Judge Nichols to release Bannon from prison, but the exchange with the judge became heated.
Navarro is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for the 2023 conviction.
This story has been updated with additional details.
