Supreme Court clears path for DOJ to erase Steve Bannon's Jan 6 conviction
The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Justice Department to dismiss the criminal conviction against President Donald Trump's former advisor, Steve Bannon — a symbolic, but significant move in one of the highest-profile prosecutions tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and resulting congressional probe.
In a brief, unsigned order, justices tossed an appeals court ruling that upheld Bannon’s criminal contempt conviction, sending the case back down to a district court judge for dismissal.
The order clears a key legal obstacle for the Trump administration to dismiss Bannon's criminal conviction completely.
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The reversal is largely symbolic. Bannon, a longtime Trump ally and former White House advisor, was convicted in 2022 on two criminal charges of contempt of Congress stemming from his refusal to testify before a House select committee investigating the Capitol riot.
He had already served a four-month prison sentence for the convictions in 2024, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the guilty verdict handed down by the jury and declined to rehear the case.
Bannon had also been ordered to pay more than $6,000 in fines in connection with the conviction.
The Supreme Court, for its part, declined at the time to grant his emergency application to further postpone jail time.
In vacating the appeals court order, justices on the high court removed a key legal obstacle preventing the Trump administration from dismissing Bannon's conviction.
Bannon’s lawyers had argued at the time that he had been acting on the advice of his counsel in refusing to comply with Congress.
They also attempted to argue claims of executive privilege, though the latter sparked skepticism from House lawmakers, who noted that Bannon had departed the White House in 2017, several years before the riot took place.
It is unclear how long it might take to formally dismiss the case at the district court level.
The Justice Department in February asked the Supreme Court to allow them to dismiss Bannon's conviction and remand his case back to the district court to do so. They told the high court they had concluded the prosecution was no longer in "the interests of justice."
The unanimous Supreme Court order did not have any dissents.
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Still, the request and resulting order represents a stark about-face from the Biden-led Justice Department, which had argued to the Supreme Court in 2024 that Bannon had acted "with total noncompliance" in avoiding the House investigators. They had urged the high court to deny Bannon's bid to delay prison time.
The order also comes as Trump, in his second term, has moved to unwind many of the investigations brought by the Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden — including the convictions brought in connection with the Capitol riot.
Shortly after taking office last year, Trump issued a blanket pardon to more than 1,500 persons convicted or charged in connection with the Jan. 6 events.
His administration has also terminated a growing list of FBI agents assigned to the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting a wave of wrongful termination lawsuits, including one filed as recently as last month.