The US supreme court has cleared the way for dismissal of a criminal case in which Trump ally Steve Bannon was convicted of defying a congressional subpoena.
The court threw out a lower court’s decision to uphold Bannon’s 2022 conviction for refusing to turn over documents or testify to a congressional panel that investigated the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
Trump’s justice department, in urging the supreme court to reject the lower court’s decision, told the justices in court papers it has determined that dismissal of Bannon’s case “is in the interests of justice”.
The department had already filed a motion to dismiss the case at the trial court level.
After the supreme court in June 2024 denied Bannon’s request to keep him out of prison while his appeal played out, he served a four-month sentence at a low-security federal facility in Danbury, Connecticut.
The justice department declined to comment on Monday.
The supreme court, in a brief unsigned order, returned the case to the lower court for further consideration “in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment.”
Bannon was convicted by a jury in Washington on two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to provide documents or testimony to a Democratic-led House of Representatives committee investigating the Capitol attack.
The rioters had tried to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump in the Republican president’s unsuccessful 2020 re-election run.
Bannon called the House committee’s inquiry and the charges brought against him by the justice department during Biden’s presidency politically motivated.
Bannon (72) served as a key adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and his chief White House strategist in 2017 during Trump’s first term in office, before a falling-out between them that was later patched up.
At the sentencing hearing in the case, prosecutor JP Cooney said that Bannon chose to “thumb his nose at Congress”.
Bannon “is not above the law. And that’s what makes this case important,” said Cooney.
Bannon was released from prison a week before Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Bannon cast himself as a political prisoner and told reporters upon his release: “I am far from broken. I have been empowered by my four months at Danbury federal prison.”
He then resumed hosting his War Room podcast.
Bannon helped articulate the America First right-wing populism and stout opposition to immigration that has helped define Trump’s presidency.
He has played an instrumental role in reactionary media and has promoted right-wing causes and candidates in the United States and overseas.
According to the House committee, Bannon spoke to Trump at least twice on the day before the January 6th attack, attended a planning meeting at a Washington hotel, and said on his podcast that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow”.
The court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2024 upheld Bannon’s conviction, prompting his appeal to the supreme court.
Bannon has also faced other legal problems. He pleaded guilty in New York state court in February 2025 to a fraud charge after being accused by prosecutors of deceiving donors in 2019 in a private fundraising drive to support Trump’s wall along the US-Mexico border.
Bannon avoided jail time in that case.
In 2021, Trump pardoned Bannon after he was indicted on federal charges, also relating to the border wall fundraising. – Reuters
