Federal prosecutors have asked Judge Carl Nichols to order Steve Bannon, a former adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, to begin his four-month prison sentence. This follows the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision last week to uphold Bannon's criminal contempt of Congress conviction.
Prosecutors argue that there is no legal basis for Judge Nichols to continue the stay on Bannon's sentence after the appeals court's ruling, which rejected all grounds for Bannon's appeal. The request was filed on Tuesday (May 14), but it is not yet clear when Judge Nichols will rule on it.
"I'm shocked they want to silence the voice of MAGA," Bannon told ABC News in response to the filing.
Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt in October 2022, but Judge Nichols agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision. The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that none of the information sought in the trial subpoenas was relevant to the elements of the contempt offense nor to any affirmative defense Bannon was entitled to present at trial. The judgment of conviction and sentence were affirmed.