The Supreme Court issued an order expected to dismiss Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress conviction, largely symbolic as he already served his prison term. A similar order affects P.G. Sittenfeld's bribery conviction.
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, secured a Supreme Court order on Monday that is anticipated to lead to the dismissal of his criminal conviction for refusing to testify before Congress. This dismissal, however, holds largely symbolic weight, as Bannon has already completed a four-month prison sentence after being found guilty of contempt of Congress in 2022. A federal appeals court in Washington had previously upheld his conviction. In a parallel development, the justices issued a similar order concerning former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who received a pardon from Trump last year. Sittenfeld had served 16 months in federal prison following his 2022 conviction for bribery and attempted extortion; the Supreme Court's action now permits a lower court to consider dismissing his indictment. The Justice Department, which initiated the case against Bannon during President Joe Biden’s administration, altered its stance after Trump re-entered office last year. Bannon initially argued that his testimony was protected by Trump's assertion of executive privilege. However, both the House panel and the Justice Department challenged this claim, contending it was questionable given that Trump had fired Bannon from the White House in 2017, making him a private citizen during his consultations with the then-president leading up to the Capitol riot. It is important to note that a separate conviction in a New York state court, where Bannon pleaded guilty to defrauding donors in a private border wall effort (a plea deal that spared him jail time), remains unaffected by this Supreme Court decision.
