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Supreme Court rejects Steve Bannon’s bid to remain out of prison while appealing conviction
Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday denied a bid by conservative commentator Steve Bannon to remain out of prison while he appeals his conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress.
The order clears the way for Bannon to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence. Bannon sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court after the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., rejected his request to remain free during his appeals process.
Bannon, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted nearly two years ago after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Lawmakers had sought documents and testimony from Bannon related to his communications with Trump about efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
Bannon, who served as White House chief strategist, rebuffed the subpoena, arguing a lawyer for the former president had indicated that Trump had invoked executive privilege over the information sought by House investigators, which prevented Bannon from turning it over.
Steven Hirsch / AP
Bannon was fired from his White House post in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time of the 2020 election.
After he declined to produce the information to the select committee, the House voted to find Bannon in contempt of Congress. He was charged weeks later with two counts of criminal contempt.
Before the trial began, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over the proceedings, barred Bannon’s lawyer from arguing or presenting evidence that he relied in good faith on his one-time lawyer when he said he couldn’t respond to the subpoena. A jury later found him guilty on both counts, and Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison. Nichols allowed Bannon to remain free while he appealed his conviction.
A panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Bannon’s conviction, after which Nichols agreed to revoke Bannon’s bail and ordered him to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by July 1 to begin serving his sentence.
Bannon sought emergency relief from the D.C. Circuit pending further appeals of his conviction, including to the Supreme Court, and his request was denied 2-1.
In seeking the high court’s intervention, lawyers for Bannon argued that he should not have to serve his entire prison term before the justices have the opportunity to consider whether to review his case. The Supreme Court is nearing the end of its term and is set to begin its summer recess in early July.
They said in a filing that the stakes of Bannon’s challenge “could not be higher,” because under earlier rulings by the D.C. Circuit, “future disagreements about subpoena compliance will not be met with negotiation — but with indictments.”
Bannon’s lawyers noted over the past few decades, high-ranking Executive Branch officials have been held in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas, including attorneys general from both parties, the White House counsel and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Anne Gorsuch, the mother of Justice Neil Gorsuch.
“In the future, when the House or Senate and the Executive Branch are controlled by the same party, there is every reason to fear that former Executive Branch officials will face prison after declining to provide privileged materials to a committee, even where the position taken was based upon the advice of counsel in good faith and requested further negotiations,” they said.
The Justice Department urged the justices to deny Bannon’s effort, telling the court in a filing that his contention that he will have his convictions reversed or win a new trial because the lower courts misinterpreted what was required to convict him of contempt “lacks merit.”
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar rejected Bannon’s attempt to compare his situation to Justice Department lawyers who declined to turn over documents regarding Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son.
His “total noncompliance even though he had been told by the former President’s counsel that he was not immune from testifying and could not simply disregard the subpoena, is not analogous to internal instructions to current government employees about providing testimony regarding their official responsibilities,” she wrote.
She said that Bannon failed to identify any authority that supports absolute testimonial immunity for the former advisers of former presidents, and didn’t raise such a constitutional defense to his prosecution based on that purported immunity.
Bannon is not the only former official from the Trump White House who has turned to the Supreme Court while fighting a contempt of Congress conviction. Peter Navarro, who served as a top trade adviser to Trump, is serving a four-month prison sentence at a correctional facility in Miami after he was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt last year for defying a subpoena from the House select committee.
Navarro asked the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free during his appeal. His bid was rejected first by Chief Justice John Roberts and then by the full court.
Legislation to expand Social Security benefits to millions of Americans passed the U.S. Senate early Saturday and is now headed to the desk of President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign the measure into law.
Senators voted 76-20 for the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate two federal policies that prevent nearly 3 million people, including police officers, firefighters, postal workers, teachers and others with a public pension, from collecting their full Social Security benefits. The legislation has been decades in the making, as the Senate held its first hearings into the policies in 2003.
“The Senate finally corrects a 50-year mistake,” proclaimed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, after senators approved the legislation at 12:15 a.m. Saturday.
The bill’s passage is “a monumental victory for millions of public service workers who have been denied the full benefits they’ve rightfully earned,” said Shannon Benton, executive director for the Senior Citizens League, which advocates for retirees and which has long pushed for the expansion of Social Security benefits. “This legislation finally restores fairness to the system and ensures the hard work of teachers, first responders and countless public employees is truly recognized.”
The vote came down to the wire, as the Senate looked to wrap up its current session. Senators rejected four amendments and a budgetary point of order late Friday night that would have derailed the measure, given the small window of time left to pass it.
Vice President-elect JD Vance of Ohio was among the 24 Republican senators to join 49 Democrats to advance the measure in an initial procedural vote that took place Wednesday.
“Social Security is a bedrock of our middle class. You pay into it for 40 quarters, you earned it, it should be there when you retire,” Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost his seat in the November election, told the chamber ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “All these workers are asking for is for what they earned.”
What is the Social Security Fairness Act?
The Social Security Fairness Act would repeal two federal policies — the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) — that reduce Social Security payments to nearly 3 million retirees.
That includes those who also collect pensions from state and federal jobs that aren’t covered by Social Security, including teachers, police officers and U.S. postal workers. The bill would also end a second provision that reduces Social Security benefits for those workers’ surviving spouses and family members. The WEP impacts about 2 million Social Security beneficiaries and the GPO nearly 800,000 retirees.
The measure, which passed the House in November, had 62 cosponsors when it was introduced in the Senate last year. Yet the bill’s bipartisan support eroded in recent days, with some Republican lawmakers voicing doubts due to its cost. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed legislation would add a projected $195 billion to federal deficits over a decade.
Without Senate approval, the bill’s fate would have ended with the current session of Congress and would have needed to be re-introduced in the next Congress.
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Saturday is the winter solstice and 2024’s shortest day. Here’s what to know about the official start of winter.
The 2024 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, happens on Saturday, Dec. 21, in the Northern Hemisphere. The celestial event signifies the first day of winter, astronomically.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the day each year that has the shortest period of daylight between sunrise and sunset, and therefore the longest night. It happens when the sun is directly above the Tropic of Capricorn, a line of latitude that circles the globe south of the equator, the National Weather Service explains.
The farther north you are, the shorter the day will be, and in the Arctic Circle, the sun won’t rise at all.
How is the day of the winter solstice determined?
The winter solstice occurs because of the Earth’s tilt as it rotates around the sun.
When the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun, the nights last longer. The longest night happens on the solstice because the hemisphere is in its furthest position from the sun. That occurs each year on Dec. 21 or 22.
This year, it falls on Dec. 21 at 4:21 a.m ET, to be precise.
On the summer solstice, when the northern tilt is closest to the sun, we have the longest day, usually June 20 or 21.
National Weather Service
The solstices are not always exactly on the 21st every year because the earth’s rotation around the sun is 365.25 days, instead of 365 even.
Will days start getting longer after the winter solstice?
Yes. Each day after the solstice, we get one minute more of sunlight. It doesn’t sound like much, but after just two months, or around 60 days, we’ll be seeing about an hour more of sunlight.
When will winter officially be over in 2025?
The meteorological winter ends on March 20, 2025. Then, spring will last until June 20, when the summer solstice arrives.
How is the winter solstice celebrated around the world?
Nations and cultures around the world have celebrated the solstice since ancient times with varying rituals and traditions. The influence of those solstice traditions can still be seen in our celebrations of holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah, Britannica notes.
The ancient Roman Saturnalia festival celebrated the end of the planting season and has close ties with modern-day Christmas. It honored Saturn, the god of harvest and farming. The multiple-day affair had lots of food, games and celebrations. Presents were given to children and the poor, and slaves were allowed to stop working.
Gatherings are held every year at Stonehenge, a monumental circle of massive stones in England that dates back about 5,000 years. The origins of Stonehenge are shrouded in mystery, but it was built to align with the sun on solstice days.
Andrew Matthews/PA Images via Getty Images
The Hopi, a Native American tribe in the northern Arizona area, celebrate the winter solstice with dancing, purification and sometimes gift-giving. A sacred ritual known as the Soyal Ceremony marks the annual milestone.
In Peru, people honor the return of the sun god on the winter solstice. The ancient tradition would be to hold sacrificial ceremonies, but today, people hold mock sacrifices to celebrate. Because Peru is in the Southern Hemisphere, their winter solstice happens in June, when the Northern Hemisphere is marking its summer solstice.
Scandinavia celebrates St. Lucia’s Day, a festival of lights.
The “arrival of winter,” or Dong Zhi, is a Chinese festival where family gathers to celebrate the year so far. Traditional foods include tang yuan, sweet rice balls with a black sesame filling. It’s believed to have its origins in post-harvest celebrations.
Researchers stationed in in Antarctica even have their own traditions, which may include an icy plunge into the polar waters. They celebrate “midwinter” with festive meals, movies and sometimes homemade gifts.