Bannon, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, won the Supreme Court order on Monday, setting up a potential step toward ending a contempt case that has followed him since a House committee sought his testimony after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Associated Press reported that the justices rejected a prior appellate decision that had upheld Bannon’s conviction for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.
The Supreme Court’s action is expected to free a trial judge to consider whether to dismiss Bannon’s conviction and related indictment, based on a request from the Republican administration for dismissal “in the interests of justice.” The AP said the move is largely symbolic because Bannon already served a four-month prison term after a jury convicted him of contempt of Congress in 2022.
The case hinges on the dispute over whether Bannon could refuse to testify to Congress, a position he initially framed around executive privilege. The House panel and the Justice Department, as described by the AP, argued that Bannon’s claim was doubtful because Trump fired Bannon from the White House in 2017, leaving Bannon, at the time he was consulted in the run-up to the Capitol riot, as a private citizen rather than part of the executive branch.
The procedural shift also reflects a change in the Justice Department’s approach across administrations. The AP reported that prosecutors brought the contempt case during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, but later changed course after Trump took office again last year.
In the Supreme Court’s Monday action, the court also issued a similar order involving former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld. According to the AP, Sittenfeld had served 16 months in federal prison after a jury convicted him in 2022 of bribery and attempted extortion, and Trump pardoned him last year; the Supreme Court order lets a lower court consider dismissing his indictment.
Bannon’s contempt conviction, the AP noted, is separate from another legal outcome involving him in New York state court. The report said Bannon separately pleaded guilty in state court to defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S. southern border under a plea deal that allowed him to avoid jail time, and that state conviction was not affected by the Supreme Court action.
For now, the Supreme Court’s order shifts the focus back to the lower court, where the judge can decide whether to carry forward the dismissal request that officials say is appropriate under the circumstances. The case remains part of the ongoing legal debate over congressional subpoena authority and the boundaries of executive-privilege claims.