Steve Bannon is days away from reporting to prison on Monday, July 1, unless the Supreme Court keeps him out while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction. On Wednesday, the Justice Department urged the high court to reject Bannon’s application.
In its opposition filing, the federal government cited the recent example of another Trump-world figure: Peter Navarro. Referring to the former White House adviser, the U.S. solicitor general reminded the justices that they “recently denied a similar application for release by another defendant who engaged in complete defiance of a subpoena issued by the same committee that subpoenaed applicant.” Both Bannon and Navarro were convicted for refusing to comply with the House Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena.
In Navarro’s case, Chief Justice John Roberts took the rare step of writing an opinion to explain why Navarro wasn’t allowed to remain free while he appealed. Navarro then tried his luck with another justice, Neil Gorsuch, who referred the matter to the full court, which rejected Navarro without further comment.
Bannon’s lawyers cited Roberts’ opinion rejecting Navarro as a reason to side with Bannon now. In his application to the chief justice, who oversees emergency filings from Washington courts, they wrote: “Your Honor issued an