CBS News
Steve Bannon seeks to stay out of prison while he appeals contempt of Congress conviction
Washington — Steve Bannon, a conservative commentator and ally to former President Donald Trump, has asked a federal appeals court to allow him to remain out of prison while he continues to challenge his conviction on two counts of contempt of Congress.
Bannon was ordered last week to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving a four-month sentence. But in a request for emergency relief to the U.S. court of appeals in Washington, the one-time White House chief strategist argued that he should be allowed to remain free as he mounts further appeals, including to the Supreme Court.
Bannon’s conviction in 2022 stemmed from his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the then-House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. House investigators sought documents and testimony from Bannon about numerous issues, including his communications with Trump about efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Bannon argued at the time that he couldn’t respond to the subpoena because of potential claims of executive privilege raised by Trump and said a lawyer for the former president indicated Trump had invoked executive privilege. Bannon was fired from his post as White House chief strategist in 2017 and was a private citizen at the time of the efforts to subvert the transfer of presidential power after the 2020 election.
Before the start of his trial, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who presided over the proceedings, barred Bannon from presenting evidence or arguing he relied on advice of his one-time attorney when he refused to comply with the subpoena. A jury later found Bannon guilty on the two counts of contempt of Congress and Nichols sentenced him to four months in prison. The judge allowed Bannon to remain free while he pursued an appeal of his conviction.
A three-judge panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld Bannon’s conviction last month, finding in part that the advice-of-counsel defense Bannon sought to raise “is no defense at all.”
The judges said that Bannon didn’t dispute that he deliberately refused to comply with the House select committee’s subpoena, “in that he knew what the subpoena required and intentionally did not respond; his nonresponse, in other words, was no accident.”
The D.C. Circuit panel also rejected Bannon’s claims that the subpoena was invalid.
In light of the panel’s decision, Nichols revoked Bannon’s bail and ordered him to surrender by July 1 to begin serving his prison sentence. The conservative commentator plans to ask the full slate of judges on the D.C. Circuit to rehear his case and could seek further relief from the Supreme Court.
In his request to remain free while he continues the appeals process, Bannon’s lawyers wrote there are “good reasons to believe” the Supreme Court would be interested in reviewing his conviction.
“Further, the issue is important because under this court’s caselaw, future disagreements about subpoena compliance will be met not with negotiation — but with indictments, especially when the White House changes political parties,” they told the D.C. Circuit in their emergency motion for release.
Bannon’s legal team said that if their client is denied release, he will serve his prison sentence before the Supreme Court has a chance to consider a request to take up his appeal. The court’s term is set to end by the end of June or early July, and its next term begins Oct. 7.
“There is also no denying the political realities here,” Bannon’s lawyers wrote, noting that he is a political commentator and campaign strategist who was prosecuted by the Biden administration. “The government seeks to imprison Mr. Bannon for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues. This would also effectively bar Mr. Bannon from serving as a meaningful advisor in the ongoing national campaign.”
Bannon’s lawyers asked the D.C. Circuit to issue a ruling on his request to remain out of prison by June 18, which would allow them time to seek additional emergency relief from the Supreme Court if needed.
Bannon is the second former official from the Trump White House who was found guilty by a jury for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House select committee. 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.
Navarro is also appealing his conviction and asked the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free during the additional proceedings. But his bid was rejected first by Chief Justice John Roberts and then by the full court.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.