The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal contempt against Steve Bannon over his failure to uphold congressional subpoenas.
The Court wrote in an unsigned order, “The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for further consideration in light of the pending motion to dismiss the indictment.”
In February 2026, the Trump administration filed a motion to dismiss the case. The government “respectfully moves this Court to dismiss with prejudice the above captioned case against Defendant Stephen K. Bannon. The government has determined in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of this criminal case is in the interests of justice. Defendant Bannon does not oppose this motion,” the filing read.
Bannon had argued to the Supreme Court that his conviction “must be vacated because he was not allowed to argue at trial that he resisted the subpoena on grounds of executive privilege.”
Bannon was released from prison in 2024 after serving a four month sentence. He was previously found guilty of contempt of Congress charges.
Upon returning to his show following his release, Bannon said his time in prison “empowered” him. “I am more energized and more focused than I’ve ever been in my entire life,” he said, “and I can see clearly just like in 2016 and in 2020 exactly what’s going on here and what we have to do to defeat it.”
