Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) is encouraging Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to lead a legal effort to support former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.
Bannon is aiming to stay out of prison while appealing his conviction for evading a subpoena from the House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Banks, whom former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked from being a ranking member of the Jan. 6 panel back in 2021, reiterated a longtime — and thus far, unsuccessful — argument from Republicans that the panel was illegitimately conceived, and therefore the subpoenas were illegitimate.
“Given the Committee’s unprecedented, norm-shattering behavior, and partisan motives and structure, if you were to direct the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to file an amicus brief in support of Mr. Bannon’s June 21, 2024, Emergency Application for Continued Release Pending Appeal to the Supreme Court, it would have my full support,” Banks said in a letter to Johnson on Tuesday.
Bannon was found guilty of two contempt of Congress counts in 2022 stemming from his failure to cooperate with the Jan. 6 panel’s subpoenas. He was ordered to report for a four-month sentence on July 1.
On Friday, Bannon filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court to stay out of prison while he appeals his conviction.
