
<p>MAGA-world podcaster Steve Bannon has won a Supreme Court order that is expected to lead to the dismissal of his criminal conviction for refusing to testify to Congress.</p>



<p>Prodded by the Trump administration, the justices threw out an appellate ruling upholding Bannon’s conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol.</p>



<p>The move frees a trial judge to act on the Republican administration’s pending request to dismiss Bannon’s conviction and indictment “in the interests of justice.”</p>



<p>The dismissal would be largely symbolic. Bannon served a four-month prison term after a jury convicted him of ;contempt of Congress ;in 2022. A federal appeals court in Washington had upheld the conviction.</p>



<p>The justices also issued a similar order in the case of former Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, who was pardoned by Trump last year.</p>



<p>Sittenfeld had ;served 16 months ;in federal prison after ;a jury convicted him ;of bribery and attempted extortion in 2022. The high court order allows a lower court to consider dismissing his indictment.</p>



<p>The Justice Department brought the case against Bannon during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, but it changed course after Trump took office again last year.</p>



<p>Bannon had initially argued that his testimony was protected by ;Trump’s claim of executive privilege. But the House panel and the Justice Department contended such a claim was dubious because Trump had ;fired Bannon from the White House ;in 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with the then-president in the run-up to ;the Capitol riot.</p>



<p>Bannon separately has ;pleaded guilty ;in a New York state court to defrauding donors to a private effort to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, as part of a plea deal that allowed him to avoid jail time. That conviction is unaffected by the Supreme Court action.</p>



<p>The unanimous Supreme Court order did not have any dissents.</p>



<p>It is unclear how long it might take to formally dismiss the case at the district court level. ;</p>



<p>The order also comes as Trump, in his second term, has moved to unwind many of the investigations brought by the Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden — including the convictions brought in connection with the Capitol riot. ;</p>



<p>Shortly after taking office last year, Trump issued a blanket pardon to more than 1,500 persons convicted or charged in connection with the Jan. 6 events. ;</p>



<p>His administration has also terminated a growing list of FBI agents assigned to the Jan. 6 investigation, prompting a wave of wrongful termination lawsuits, including one filed as recently as last month. ;</p>

SCOTUS Hands Bannon a Huge Win for Jan. 6 Imprisonment
