Steve Bannon‘s contempt of Congress convictions are set to be wiped from the record after the Supreme Court paved the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the case.Â
Bannon served four months in jail in 2024 after he refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the January 6 committee set up to investigate the attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to a district court judge in Washington and struck down an appeals court ruling that had upheld the jury verdict, handing the Trump administration a symbolic victory. Â
Justices declined to hear arguments in Bannon’s appeal of his 2022 conviction, granting his petition only to vacate the lower court’s ruling and remand the case.Â
The move frees a trial judge to proceed with the Justice Department’s request to throw out the conviction and indictment. Â
Bannon’s appeal turned on arguments over the term ‘willfully.’Â
He argued he was not defying Congress but waiting for legal advice over whether Trump’s executive privilege could shield him from testifying.
He was ‘precluded … from presenting such a defense at trial,’ his attorneys told the Supreme Court, adding that this was a ‘crucial flaw’ made by the judge.
Steve Bannon speaks during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, US December 19, 2025
Trump and Bannon at the White House on January 22, 2017
Rioters storm the West Front of the U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021, in Washington
Bannon had left the White House in 2017, years before the January 6 probe, and Trump never formally invoked executive privilege on his behalf.Â
His lawyers argued the legal question was sufficiently unresolved to justify non-compliance while it was sorted out, but courts rejected the reasoning.Â
A federal appeals court ruled in 2024 that reliance on attorneys’ advice was ‘no defense at all’ to contempt of Congress.Â
Joe Biden‘s Justice Department alleged that Bannon responded to the subpoenas ‘with total noncompliance.’
But under Trump, the DOJ said it had ‘determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice.’Â
Since returning to the White House, Trump has pardoned hundreds of people who participated in the Capitol riot and directed his Justice Department to pursue investigations of those who brought cases against him in the first place.Â
Bannon, 72, a former White House chief strategist and one of Trump’s most prominent media allies, had already served his sentence before Monday’s ruling.Â
But the federal conviction, a misdemeanor, carried lasting consequences, including on background checks and international travel.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally on January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC
Its removal lifts a legal cloud that has hung over him since 2022.Â
Monday’s ruling applies only to the contempt conviction. Bannon separately pleaded guilty in a New York state court to defrauding donors of a private border wall fundraising scheme, a conviction unaffected by Monday’s action.Â
Bannon was the second White House aide jailed for failing to comply with the January 6 committee’s request.
Peter Navarro also served a four-month sentence after being convicted on the same two counts. His appeal is ongoing.
The Daily Mail has contacted Bannon for comment.
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Steve Bannon set to be CLEARED as Supreme Court makes bombshell ruling