Trump ally Steve Bannon to start prison sentence on July 1
- Decision means Bannon will likely be behind bars for a critical stretch of the US presidential campaign
Former top Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon was ordered by a federal judge on Thursday to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.
Bannon, 70, was convicted of contempt in July 2022 for defying a subpoena to testify before the congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
One of the masterminds behind Trump’s successful 2016 presidential campaign, he was sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022, but has remained free while appealing his conviction.
A US federal appeals court upheld the conviction last month. US District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, revoked Bannon’s bail at a court hearing on Thursday and ordered him to report to prison by July 1.
A defiant Bannon addressed reporters outside the Washington courthouse after the judge’s order, saying “there’s nothing that can shut me up and nothing that will shut me up”.
“There’s not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up,” he said.
