(LifeSiteNews) — The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected popular conservative commentator and former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s request to delay reporting to prison on July 1.
The one-sentence ruling issued Friday, June 28, simply states that the application of appeal has been “denied.” There is no indication by the court of any dissenting justices’ opinions on the matter.
Bannon’s unsuccessful appeal to the Supreme Court follows an unsuccessful appeal to a Washington, D.C. appeals court last week, in which a three-judge panel issued a split decision denying his request to delay imprisonment. In that ruling, Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama nominee, and Judge Bradley Garcia, a Biden nominee, voted to reject Bannon’s request. Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, dissented.
Bannon, who has been ordered to serve a fourth-month sentence, was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress by a federal court in July 2022, after he failed to comply with a subpoena issued by the Democrat-led House committee investigating the events of January 6.
Bannon and his attorneys have argued that the prison sentence should be delayed in light of the upcoming presidential election and to allow sufficient time to seek further relief from the Supreme Court.
“There is no denying the political realities here,” wrote Bannon’s attorneys in their submission to the three-judge panel last week. “Mr. Bannon is a high-profile political commentator and campaign strategist. He was prosecuted by an administration whose policies are a frequent target of Mr. Bannon’s public statements.”
“The government seeks to imprison Mr. Bannon for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues,” they noted.
Being sent to prison now “would also effectively bar Mr. Bannon from serving as a meaningful advisor in the ongoing national campaign.”
Moreover, many conservatives see the prosecution of Bannon as purely political, especially considering a number of prominent Democrats, including Obama Attorney General Eric Holder and former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner, have been held in contempt of Congress but have not faced prosecution.
House Democrats’ now-defunct committee on January 6 has also been widely criticized for destroying and withholding evidence and publishing numerous Republican officials’ social security numbers.
“All of this is about one thing: This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, [and] shutting down President Trump,” Bannon declared standing in front of the D.C. court house earlier this month.
“We’re going to win this,” he predicted. “We’re going to win at the Supreme Court. And more importantly, we’re going to win on November 5th in an amazing landslide with the Senate, the House, and also Donald J. Trump back as president of the United States.”
Bannon has said that he will rely on Catholic practices to get him through his upcoming jail term.
“I do a lot of spiritual exercises following St. Ignatius of Loyola, different spiritual exercises that come out of the Catholic Church,” he told Tucker Carlson in a recent interview.