House Republicans have finally thrown their support behind Stephen K. Bannon, the presenter of “War Room” and a Trump loyalist, in his desperate attempts to avoid going to jail for eluding the subpoenas issued by the committee on January 6.
In a successful vote this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (GOP-La.) and other House Republican leaders on the Bipartisan Advisory Group submitted a brief in favor of Bannon to the U.S. Court of Appeals for DC.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GOP-Ga.), chair of the House Admin. Subcommittee on Oversight will likewise support Bannon’s emergency appeal by filing an amicus brief, but this time it will be with the U.S. Supreme Court.
While the pleadings may convince the Supreme Court to release Bannon, they may also affect other American inmates.
There are also rumors that Loudermilk’s committee is drafting legislation to overturn the Jan. 6 committee’s findings.
“It’s great to see the work that the committee is doing here, and this kind of thing potentially has more ability to spare Steve Bannon prison than the attempt to take the subpoena back (something that is only done one time — by the same committee that gave the subpoena and before legal charges were brought),” said Christopher Bedford, senior editor for Blaze Media.
The House Select Committee, under Democratic leadership and tasked with investigating the protests on January 6, found Bannon guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress in July 2022. He received a four-month prison sentence.
A Court of Appeals panel later refused Bannon’s challenges, leading partisan prosecutors to urge Carl Nichols, the Trump judge supervising Bannon’s case in Washington, D.C., to sentence the populist to prison.
Bannon received a directive earlier this month to appear in jail by July 1. But he still had two arrows in his quiver: an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or an appeal to the entire panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals.
