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Federal lawyers on Feb. 9 asked a federal judge to dismiss a criminal case against Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump.
“The government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice,” prosecutors wrote in filings to the Supreme Court and U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who oversaw Bannon’s trial.
They asked the Supreme Court to remand the case to Nichols and for Nichols to dismiss it.
Bannon, 72, was convicted of contempt of Congress for declining to testify and provide documents to a congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. He served four months in prison and was released in 2024.
The case is still active because Bannon has continued to appeal the conviction.
Lawyers for Bannon did not immediately respond to requests for comment by publication time.
According to U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, one of the lawyers, Bannon does not oppose having his case dismissed.
Bannon, in 2022, became the first person since the 1980s to be convicted of contempt of Congress. Prior to his conviction, jurors heard testimony that Bannon defied a subpoena from a congressional panel investigating the Capitol breach that was largely made up of Democrats.
Bannon’s attorneys said he was going to comply with the subpoena once the question of whether he was protected by executive privilege was settled.
Nichols sentenced Bannon to four months in prison and levied a fine of $6,500.
Bannon served four months in prison, an experience he later described as empowering and energizing.
He hosts a podcast called WarRoom that regularly hosts Republicans, including GOP lawmakers.
In an appeal, Bannon’s representatives said Nichols wrongly excluded evidence that supported his case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied the appeal.
Bannon’s lawyers, in a 2025 filing to Supreme Court justices, said the contempt of Congress statute requires proving that a person knew his or her conduct was illegal and that it should not have been redefined to intentional conduct. Keeping the conviction in place “conflicts with 150 years of caselaw from this Court, is contrary to basic canons of construction, and will cause serious harm to the separation of powers,” they wrote.
The court previously rejected Bannon’s attempt to delay reporting to prison but has not weighed in on the appeal itself.
In a 7-page filing on Feb. 9, Solicitor General D. John Sauer told justices that the court should grant the petition for review, vacate the judgment of the appeals court, and remand the case to Nichols.
