Prosecutors ask judge to order Steve Bannon to report to prison

Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday filed a motion requesting that U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols order former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to begin serving his four-month prison sentence after an appeals court last week upheld his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.

In a motion filed Tuesday, prosecutors said there is “no legal basis” for the judge to continue the stay on Bannon’s sentence after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected Bannon’s appeal on all grounds.

“Consequently, there is no longer a ‘substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,’” prosecutors wrote in the motion. “Under these circumstances, the Court ‘shall order’ defendant ‘be detained,’ so the stay of sentence must be lifted.”

Nichols has not yet ruled on the motion. But in an order later Tuesday, the judge ordered Bannon to respond to the motion by Thursday.

The office of David I. Schoen, Bannon's attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $6,500 in October 2022 after he was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena by the House Jan. 6 committee to provide documents and testimony. The judge, however, postponed the sentence pending Bannon's appeal.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last week upheld Bannon’s conviction.

In a statement last week following the appeals court ruling, Schoen said he plans to ask the full D.C. Circuit to hear his client’s case.

“That is the next step,” he said.