Justice Department Renews Motion to Vacate Bannon's Contempt Conviction and Dismiss the Indictment
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion on November 5, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, asking the court to vacate the judgment of conviction against Stephen K. Bannon and dismiss the indictment. The motion is unopposed; Bannon's side does not object. It is brought under Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and alternatively asks the court to vacate the judgment under Rule 33.
Bannon is a former adviser to President Donald Trump. He refused to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol, saying he believed the materials sought were protected by executive privilege. In 2022 he was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress and served four months in prison; a federal appeals court upheld the conviction in 2024.
In the motion, the department says dismissal is in the interests of justice as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion: the Executive Branch does not believe it is appropriate to pursue contempt of Congress charges against a former presidential adviser who did not comply with a subpoena based on an asserted belief that he was protected by executive privilege. The department also says it harbors significant doubts about the fairness of Bannon's trial, because existing precedent foreclosed a central defense, that he did not willfully violate the law but sincerely believed compliance was not legally required.
The filing is a renewed motion. The department first moved to dismiss in February 2026 while Bannon's petition to the Supreme Court was pending; on May 8, 2026, the Supreme Court granted the petition, vacated the appeals court's judgment and remanded the case, and on August 12, 2026, the D.C. Circuit sent the case back to the district court to address the dismissal motion. Judge Carl Nichols then denied the first motion without prejudice, finding its explanation insufficient, and asked the department to address a 2025 precedent. The new 21-page motion filed on November 5 supplies that fuller explanation.
The motion was signed by Deputy Associate Attorney General Michael Weisbuch and others. The judge has not yet ruled on the renewed motion. Critics, including former federal prosecutor Bruce Searby, have publicly questioned the department's repeated requests to erase convictions of Trump allies with no opposing party left to defend the verdicts in court; the department did not respond to media requests for comment on that criticism.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
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