A lawyer for Steve Bannon told a federal appeals court on Thursday that the ex-Trump senior adviser should be spared jail time for a contempt of Congress conviction, seeking to overturn a district court’s sentence of four months in the slammer, The Hill reported. Attorney David Schoen argued that Bannon was merely following the advice of counsel when he decided to ignore subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 Committee. That counsel told Bannon at the time that he didn’t have to comply due to presidential privilege, Schoen argued. But the panel of three appeals court judges didn’t appear to buy Schoen’s argument on Thursday, saying the issue of privilege was largely irrelevant to the appeal and would not have necessarily allowed Bannon to ignore the subpoena anyway. Bannon was supposed to report to prison in November but it was delayed while his appeal plays out.
