Steve Bannon set to begin four-month prison term

Steve Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and former Trump White House aide, is set to report to a federal prison in Danbury, Conn., Monday.

He must serve time after refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the siege on the U.S. Capitol.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Bannon to remain free while his case goes through the appeals process.

A federal jury in Washington, D.C., convicted Bannon two years ago on two criminal contempt charges, for defying subpoenas for documents and testimony from the House Select Committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

Bannon successfully delayed his four-month prison sentence for years, as appeals wound through the courts. But his luck ran out in May, when a federal appeals court unanimously rejected his claims.

Bannon is the second Trump-era official ordered to serve prison time for flouting demands from Congress. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro reported to a prison in Florida in March, after Chief Justice John Roberts refused to intervene in the case.

Both men cast their disputes with Congress as challenges to the Constitution’s separation of powers, but judges found no evidence that Trump had formally asserted executive privilege to block their cooperation with lawmakers.

Bannon had tried to argue at his trial that he had relied on advice from his lawyer, and therefore lacked the intent to "willfully" violate the contempt law. A judge foreclosed that defense based on court precedent, but raised significant questions about it — questions that Bannon cited in a June 21 petition to the Supreme Court.

"Mr. Bannon relied in good faith on his attorney’s advice not to respond to a subpoena issued by a House Select Committee until