Steve Bannon ordered to begin prison sentence on July 1

In what some contend is yet another egregious example of the lawfare being waged against former President Donald Trump and his allies, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. has just ordered a noted conservative commentator to report to prison next month.

Judge Carl Nichols has ruled that former Trump advisor and media personality Steve Bannon must begin his four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena on July 1, as CBS News reports.

Guilty finding yields prison sentence

It was back in 2022 that Bannon was found guilty of two counts of contempt after refusing to comply with a House Select Committee subpoena related to a probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol unrest.

Bannon's defense centered around the argument that his non-compliance stemmed from executive privilege claims by Trump and that he had been acting on advice of counsel.

Ahead of his trial on the charges, Nichols instructed Bannon not to broach the advice of counsel argument with the jury and following the verdict, he imposed a sentence of four months' incarceration.

Nichols, however, did not enforce the sentence immediately, indicating his belief that the conviction was poised for reversal.

Conviction appealed

Though Bannon appealed the conviction, a higher court rejected his position and said that the “'advice of counsel' defense is no defense at all,” and cited the same precedent previously referenced by Nichols.

Following another appeal and a Justice Department request for the prison sentence to go ahead as planned, and ultimately, federal prosecutors won the day, with Nichols ordering Bannon to surrender on July.

Even so, the timeline laid out by Nichols gives Bannon roughly a month to appeal the bail revocation as well as the conviction itself, which his lawyers have already stated their plans to do.

Bannon did not hold back when it comes to voicing his opinion about the broader strategy, he believes is at play in sending him to prison, saying, “this is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump.”

“There is not a prison built or a jail built that will ever shut me up,” Bannon defiantly declared, noting that his team would take the matter to the Supreme Court if necessary.

Double standard on display

The decision ordering Bannon to report to prison has sparked backlash from a host of conservative lawmakers and commentators who have pointed to it -- along with the contempt imprisonment of former Trump advisor Peter Navarro -- as evidence of a weaponized standard of justice to which Democrats are not held, as Newsweek reports.

Commentator Nick Sortor observed, “Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has been ordered to report to prison by July 1 for 'contempt of Congress. Meanwhile, Merrick Garland REFUSES to prosecute people like Hunter Biden, who repeatedly LIED UNDER OATH to Congress. THE BIDEN DOJ IS TOTALLY CORRUPT.” Podcaster Craig Chamberlin mused, “When the left says, 'No one is above the law,' what they really mean is 'None of our political enemies are above our laws.'”

Adding fuel to the conservative argument about this type of “rules for me, but not for thee” approach from the left is Garland's recent declaration that, in the face of a move by GOP lawmakers to hold him in contempt for defying their request for audio recordings of an interview with President Joe Biden, he need not cooperate with processes that he -- in his supposedly infinite wisdom -- decides lack “legitimate purpose.”