Next month, a judge will decide if convicted felon Donald Trump should receive time in prison after being found guilty of 34 class E felonies stemming from the hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. And should the ex-president in fact receive time behind bars, there’s at least one person he can ask for tips on how to survive on the inside: longtime adviser Stephen Bannon, who’s got approximately three weeks until his prison sentence begins.
On Thursday, a federal judge ordered Bannon to surrender to authorities by July 1 to begin a four-month prison sentence for defying a subpoena from Congress to testify about January 6. Bannon was actually sentenced all the way back in October 2022 but was allowed to remain free pending appeal; last month, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court upheld his guilty conviction. Following that ruling, Judge Carl Nichols said the adviser to the ex-president could no longer delay his sentence. Should the full appeals court rule in Bannon’s favor before July, Bannon could avoid time—but barring that, no dice.
Speaking to reporters after receiving the news, Bannon said he’ll take his case to the Supreme Court if necessary, and claimed that his prison sentence was about Trump. “This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump,” he said, then added: “There’s nothing that can shut me up.”
Meanwhile, as the Times notes, this is not the only legal issue on Bannon’s plate:
Incidentally, Bannon is not the only Trump ally sentenced to prison for defying a congressional subpoena—former trade adviser Peter Navarro is currently doing a four-month sentence for the same crime. And if you’re wondering how many members of Team Trump have received prison sentences total, the answer is eight. Which is considered a lot!
