Steve Bannon Released From Prison After Serving Capitol Riot Contempt Sentence

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal contempt case against Steve Bannon, acting on his appeal and sending it back to a district court judge in Washington after wiping out a prior appeals court ruling that had upheld the jury verdict. The move is largely symbolic: Bannon already served his four-month sentence in 2024, paid a $6,500 fine, and has been free since late October of that year. Still, the effort to posthumously erase the conviction underscores how thoroughly the political machinery around January 6 accountability has reversed course under the current administration.

Bannon, the right-wing "War Room" podcaster and former Trump campaign strategist, was convicted in July 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The first count stemmed from his refusal to sit for a deposition; the second from his refusal to hand over documents related to his communications with then-President Trump surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 election result. His legal team argued throughout that Trump's assertion of executive privilege gave him good-faith grounds to defy the subpoenas.

After exhausting his appeals, Bannon reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut on July 1, 2024. The Supreme Court had already rejected his last-ditch bid to avoid the sentence that June. He served the full four months alongside Peter Navarro, another former Trump adviser who received an identical sentence for parallel contempt of Congress charges.

Within hours of walking out of Danbury, Bannon was back behind a microphone recording "War Room." "The four months in federal prison didn't break me, it empowered me," he said. "I am more focused and more energized than I have ever been in my entire life." He characterized himself as a "political prisoner" and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for his prosecution.

On February 9, 2026, the Justice Department under President Trump filed a motion to dismiss the contempt charges on the grounds that the original subpoena was unlawful. Monday's Supreme Court ruling removed the appellate obstacle standing between that motion and a final court ruling, setting the stage for the conviction to be formally vacated in district court.

Bannon's legal exposure does not end there. A separate New York state case, filed in 2022, charges him with defrauding donors to the "We Build the Wall" fundraising campaign, which raised money to construct private sections of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. Trump cannot pardon him in that proceeding, which remains active. He was previously convicted in a federal version of the same scheme in 2020 before receiving a presidential pardon in the final days of Trump's first term.