Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon reported to a federal prison in Connecticut on Monday to serve a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack.

What You Need To Know

  • Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon reported to a federal prison in Connecticut on Monday to serve a four-month sentence on contempt charges for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack

  • A judge had allowed Bannon to stay free for nearly two years while he appealed, but ordered him to report to prison Monday after an appeals court panel upheld his contempt of Congress convictions; the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal to stave off his sentence

  • A jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in the Republican ex-president's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden

  • Defense attorneys have argued the case raises issues that should be examined by the Supreme Court, including Bannon's previous lawyer's belief that the subpoena was invalid because former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege

Bannon framed his imprisonment as political persecution and appeared alongside far-right figures at a press conference immediately before surrendering, including Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Minnesota GOP Senate nominee Royce White, his daughter Maureen Bannon and Erik Prince, the founder of the mercenary organization Blackwater.

“I'm a political prisoner of [former House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi. I'm a political prisoner of [Attorney General] Merrick Garland. I'm a political prisoner… of Joe Biden, the corrupt Biden establishment,” Bannon said, shouting over protesters who chanted “traitor” and “lock him up!” “It's Nancy Pelosi and Merrick Garland that made me a martyr, right? But martyrs die, and I'm far from dead, baby.”

The longtime right-wing political strategist and media figure helped lead former President Donald Trump’s campaign, served briefly in the White House and continued to advise Trump both publicly and privately in the years since. He said he wouldn’t get into private conversations he’s had with the Republican Party’s presumptive 2024 nominee, but said Trump was “very supportive of him.”

Bannon arrived at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut, around noon and was formally taken into federal custody, the Bureau of Prisons said.

“I have not only no regrets, I'm actually proud of what I did and I felt terrible if I didn’t do it. I don’t mind going to prison today,” Bannon said.

Prince, the private military contractor and arms dealer, warned the prison guards at the federal facility that “ we will be here in four months to collect him in good health” and “we expect that they take good care of him, but there’ll be accountability for that as well.”

A judge had allowed Bannon to stay free for nearly two years while he appealed, but ordered him to report to prison Monday after an appeals court panel upheld his contempt of Congress convictions.

The Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal to stave off his sentence.

A jury found Bannon guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress: one for refusing to sit for a deposition with the Jan. 6 House Committee and a second for refusing to provide documents related to his involvement in the Republican ex-president's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Defense attorneys have argued the case raises issues that should be examined by the Supreme Court, including Bannon's previous lawyer's belief that the subpoena was invalid because Trump had asserted executive privilege. Prosecutors, though, say Bannon had left the White House years before and Trump had never invoked executive privilege in front of the committee.

Bannon's appeal will continue to play out, and Republican House leaders have put their support behind stepping in to assert the Jan. 6 committee was improperly created, effectively trying to deem the subpoena Bannon received as illegitimate.

“We’re working on filing an amicus brief in his appellate work there, in his case, because the Jan. 6 committee was wrongfully constituted,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week. “We’ve been investigating the committee itself. We disagree with how Speaker Pelosi put all that together. We think it violated House rules. And so we’ll be expressing that to the court and I think it’ll help Steve Bannon in his appeal.”

Another Trump aide, trade adviser Peter Navarro, has also been convicted of contempt of Congress. He reported to prison in March to serve his four-month sentence after the Supreme Court refused his bid to delay the sentence.

Bannon is also facing criminal charges in New York state court alleging he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges, and that trial has been postponed until at least the end of September.