The Justice Department is seeking to toss out its criminal case against former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who was jailed for declining to testify before the House Jan. 6 committee.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro wrote Monday that the “government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.” She asked a judge to dismiss the indictment against Bannon with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. Pirro added that Bannon did not oppose the move.
Bannon, a media personality and former White House chief strategist, was convicted of contempt of Congress after he declined to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 panel for testimony and documents. He spent about four months in prison in 2024.
Lawmakers on the committee had subpoenaed Bannon as part of a sweeping investigation into the events leading up to the Jan. 6 riot, including the alleged push by President Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the election. Bannon was not formally a part of Mr. Trump’s team at the time, but he was a vocal supporter of the president’s efforts. In its subpoena, the committee pointed to Bannon’s remarks on Jan. 5, 2021, that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”
Bannon did not comply with the subpoena, telling the committee the information that lawmakers wanted was subject to executive privilege, a legal doctrine that allows presidents to withhold certain information. The House — which had a Democratic majority at the time — voted to recommend charging Bannon with contempt of Congress in 2021, and the Justice Department brought charges against him soon after that.
Days before his mid-2022 jury trial, Bannon’s attorneys changed course and said he would be willing to testify, writing that “circumstances have now changed” and Mr. Trump had chosen to waive executive privilege. Bannon was still found guilty by a D.C.-based jury and sentenced to jail time.
Despite finishing his prison sentence in October 2024, Bannon is still challenging his conviction, asking the Supreme Court to take up his case last year. Bannon has argued that he didn’t willfully defy the subpoena, and instead was following his lawyers’ advice to hold off on complying until executive privilege issues could be worked out. He has also cast his contempt case as politically motivated.
On Monday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to vacate an appellate ruling that upheld Bannon’s conviction and send the matter back to the district court.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the request to the high court was part of an effort to “undo the prior administration’s weaponization of the justice system.”
“Today the Department of Justice told the Supreme Court that Steve Bannon’s conviction arising from the J6 ‘Unselect’ Committee’s improper subpoena should be vacated,” Blanche wrote on X.
The Justice Department’s efforts to toss out Bannon’s case come amid another high-profile debate over contempt of Congress.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend holding Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt last month after the former president and secretary of state refused to testify in an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Shortly before the full House was set to take up the issue, the Clintons said they were willing to appear for depositions. The oversight panel’s chair, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said the pair had “caved.”
