DOJ requests judge order Steve Bannon to begin prison sentence

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday requested the judge overseeing ex-Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon's criminal contempt of Congress case to order that he begin his four-month prison sentence, after an appeals court last week upheld his conviction.

Prosecutors said there is no legal basis for Judge Carl Nichols to continue the stay on Bannon serving his sentence after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals' conclusive ruling that rejected the basis for Bannon's appeal on all grounds.

"Consequently, there is no longer a 'substantial question of law that is likely to result in a reversal or an order for a new trial,'" prosecutors wrote in their filing Tuesday.

It's not immediately clear when Nichols will rule on the request.

"I'm shocked they want to silence the voice of MAGA," Bannon told ABC News in regards to Tuesday's news.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt in October 2022, but Nichols agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision.

The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its opinion Friday, "We conclude that none of the information sought in the trial subpoenas was relevant to the elements of the contempt offense, nor to any affirmative defense Bannon was entitled to present at trial."

"The judgment of conviction and sentence [is] affirmed," the judges concluded.