Steve Bannon asked the Supreme Court to overturn his contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to testify before the House select panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, his attorneys said Friday.
In a petition, Bannon’s attorneys urge the justices to decide two issues that he has pressed in his defense — whether the government must prove a defendant knew his conduct was unlawful and the whether the composition of the Jan. 6 panel affected its authority to issue subpoenas.
Convictions for contempt of Congress are rare, and a case about it at the Supreme Court is even rarer. If the justices agreed to hear the case and decided those issues, it could shape how much sway Congress has over witnesses who defy subpoenas.
