Judge gives Steve Bannon glimmer of hope that he could avoid prison: analyst

Ex-Donald Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon is headed to prison — and his single chance to avoid his fate is to beg the Supreme Court to save him.

But a judge in a lower appeals court that rejected his attempts to avoid incarceration has handed him a glimmer of hope.

When Bannon unsuccessfully appealed his jailing earlier this week, one of the three judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit put out a message that Bannon can grasp as a glimmer of hope, according to MSNBC's Jordan Rubin.

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Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress after ignoring a subpoena to appear before a panel investigation into the Jan. 6 riots.

"The dissenting judge, Trump appointee Justin Walker, said that there is a close question regarding interpretation of the contempt statute," wrote Rubin.

"He wrote that, while the D.C. Circuit is bound by its precedent to rule against Bannon in his underlying appeal, the Supreme Court, which isn’t so bound, may take a different view.

"Walker concluded that “because that question may well be material, Bannon should not go to prison before the Supreme Court considers his forthcoming petition for certiorari.”

Rubin wrote that Bannon’s lawyers cited Chief Justice Roberts, who rejected a similar appeal by Trump aide Peter Navarro, who is currently serving prison time for the same contempt of Congress charges. The fact that Roberts explained his reasoning for rejecting Navarro's appeal shows it's not a cut-and-dried case.

Bannon filed for a Supreme Court hearing on Friday.

"With his release attempt now headed toward the justices, we’ll learn whether the high court is interested," wrote Rubin.

"Relief there is still far from guaranteed, but Walker’s dissent may give Bannon hope for a different outcome than Navarro."