There’s almost no historical precedent for the Biden Department of Justice’s (DOJ) effort to have Steve Bannon serve time in jail for his conviction on contempt of Congress charges.
After an appeals court upheld in May Bannon’s conviction on contempt of Congress charges for ignoring a Jan. 6 select committee subpoena, the DOJ asked the district court judge who initially issued Bannon’s four-month prison sentence to order him to report to prison. Judge Carl J. Nichols agreed Thursday, ending the hold on his nearly unprecedented sentence that had been in place during his appeal.
Bannon now must report to prison by July 1. Besides former President Donald Trump aide Peter Navarro, who is currently serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, one of the most recent historical precedents for such a sentence dates to the Cold War, when a group of writers, directors and producers known as the “Hollywood Ten” were sentenced to jail time for refusing to cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), according to the Washington Post.
The ten believed questions posed by the HUAC violated their First Amendment rights, but the House voted to hold them in contempt in November 1947 for refusing to state whether they were members