Prosecutor puts Supreme Court on notice over Steve Bannon's 'garbage' legal ploy
Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon is turning to the Supreme Court as his last resort with an appeal to stay out of prison — but there is no reason the justices should pay him the slightest heed, Palm Beach County attorney Dave Aronberg told MSNBC's Joy Reid on Friday evening.
Bannon, who was ordered by a lower court judge to begin serving his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress at the Connecticut federal facility that helped inspire the Netflix series, "Orange Is the New Black," has already tried to appeal to other courts, with no success.
"Is there any reason you can think of why the Supreme Court would not just toss this and would ask the Justice Department to respond in any way?" Reid asked Aronberg's co-panelist, attorney and MSNBC legal commentator Katie Phang.
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"It's baffling, because the appeals court has already dealt with the issue vis-a-vis whether or not Bannon's conviction would stand," said Phang. "So I'm a little confused as to why they're kind of saying the DOJ has to participate in it, but ultimately, as we can see, Joy, he still has to report. I mean, the clock is ticking for Steve Bannon to report on July 1st. He's tried the Hail Marys. They haven't worked. Having them do this is just an exercise in futility for Steve Bannon."
"Your thoughts, Dave," said Reid. "It does seem odd. You have to go to jail, man. There's no American other than, I guess, Donald Trump and maybe Steve Bannon that could say, no, I'm not ready to go to jail, Supreme Court, hook me up."
"I agree with Katie. It is so bizarre," said Aronberg. "You know, Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee, gave Bannon a gift when he allowed Bannon to stay out pending his appeal. There's a novel argument, maybe he'll succeed on his appeal, on his advice of counsel defense. Garbage. Peter Navarro was in the same situation and was sent right to jail. He had a different judge, not Judge Nichols, a Trump appointee. Now the Supreme Court is going to weigh in. I don't see an explanation, a reason for it, just because they ask for paperwork, for briefs, doesn't mean they're going to do it. If they did it, I think that would be unconscionable. There's no reason to do so."
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