BREAKING: Trump ally gets the legal news he's dreaded

you're watching the legal breakdown all

right so Glenn we've got breaking news

here a brutal update for Steve Bannon uh

what just happened to the former Trump

Chief strategist so Brian it looks like

Steve Bannon at long last may be headed

to prison recall that he was convicted

of two counts of contempt of congress he

appealed this conviction and for some

reason the trial court judge a trump

appointee said you know what Steve you

can stay out pending appeal you don't

have to report to prison the way

virtually every other defendant um has

to do well now the DC federal circuit

court of appeals just affirmed Steve

bannon's conviction in other words

rejected his many claims that you know

his conviction should be thrown out and

he should be given a new trial so in

Fairly short order although there are a

couple of more procedural steps we're

going to talk about in Fairly short

order Steve Bannon should find himself

in the federal bureau of Prisons

probably overlapping some with his old

buddy and other Trump loyalist Peter

Naro who is presently serving a prison

term for precisely the same crimes Glen

was there anything striking uh from the

court opinion that you read you know

Brian remember Steve Bannon was involved

in all things January 6th right he was

Manning the Willard war room you know

during that time Donald Trump was

telling his supporters to fight like

hell you won't have a country anymore go

to the capital and stop the

certification stop the steal and Donald

Trump tried desperately to override the

will of the American voters and

criminally retain the power of the

presidency and who was his right-and Man

Steve bennon who was running what's been

called the Willard War Room a war room

out of the Willard Hotel in Downtown DC

trying to support and facilitate you

know keeping Donald Trump in office

criminally and unconstitutionally so as

I was reading through the 20page opinion

that just came down from the DC appeals

court here's what jumped out at me

Public Accounts indicate that Bannon had

predicted on a January 5 2021 podcast

that all hell was going to break loose

the next day January 6th Bannon had been

employed as an advisor to then president

Donald Trump for approximately 7 months

before leaving the the White House in

2017 in addition to the podcast

prediction Bannon had reportedly

participated in discussions in late 2020

and early 2021 about efforts to overturn

the 2020 election results Brian I hope

that serves as foreshadowing because

Bannon thus far has only been criminally

convicted of two counts of contempt of

congress why because he refused to

comply with Congressional subpoenas

because Congress wanted to ask him about

that very topic that I just quoted

because they knew he had evidence that

could incriminate Donald Trump but

instead of complying with those

subpoenas he you know blew them off

thumbed his nose at Congress why well in

part he didn't want to share that deeply

incriminating information about Donald

Trump and for it he was convicted and

now he's going to prison I hope that

serves as important foreshadowing and we

see additional criminal charges of Steve

Bannon not for just blowing off

Congressional subpoenas but for

participating in the crimes on and

around January 6th just as a quick aside

could that information still be used by

other judges in in some of these ongoing

trials in Donald Trump's DC prosecution

for example in the Fulton County trial

oh absolutely you know if I were

Prosecuting Donald Trump federally as

he's being prosecuted in DC or down in

Georgia as he's being prosecuted for

participating in a RICO conspiracy to

overturn the results of the Georgia

election you bet I would be stepping to

Steve Bannon through his lawyer and I

would find ways to try to extract from

him evidence that incriminates Donald

Trump so I don't think prosecutors are

necessarily done with Steve Bannon not

by a long shot it also feels like he the

the fact that he was trying so hard to

hide this information kind of like where

there's smoke there's fire if he wasn't

trying so hard to hide it to the point

where he'd actually be willing to get

himself sent to prison then uh then

there would probably be less of an

incentive for prosecutors to try to get

what he has yeah can you imagine guys

like Bannon and Navaro and others who

refuse to comply with Congressional

subpoenas subpoenas that sought

information about what what Donald Trump

did to our nation did to our democracy

did to the American voters on and around

January 6 some of these individuals were

willing to commit crimes themselves to

hide you know to to not share with

Congress and to not share with the

American people the evidence of crime

that they knew about that would

incriminate and perhaps convict Donald

Trump so you know I still think Jack

Smith is just getting warmed up with

respect to going after some of these

people Glenn in terms of uh Steve

bannon's appeal options here this

decision came from a three-judge panel

so can he request on Bon review from the

entire DC court and can he still seek

appeal from the US Supreme Court as well

yeah great criminal procedure questions

let's start with the fact that this was

a unanimous three judge opinion who were

the three judges that just denied Steve

bannon's appeal one was a trump

appointee one was an Obama appointee and

one was a Biden appointee so you can't

say they're all Angry Democrats though

I'm sure we'll hear that at some point

from Bannon and Trump and perhaps others

so but you're exactly right the next

thing that happens is the the three

judge panel gave Steve Bannon seven days

to request onbon review onbon is a fancy

term for full court all of the appell at

court judges in DC I don't think they're

going to be able to muster the votes I

believe they they need a simple majority

of all of the DC federal circuit court

of appeals judges to Grant on Bon full

court review I think it very unlikely he

can muster all those votes this was a

unanimous decision even by a trump

appointed judge um and then the only

other thing that he can do assuming that

he can't win on Bon review is he can ask

the US Supreme Court to accept the case

for review boy I hate to place a bet on

what the Supreme Court will do these

days however I I look through this

opinion Brian there it is not only rock

solid it is based on longstanding

precedent um appell at court case law

and the judges over and over again say

Steve bannon's argument that he has

presented to us urging us to overturn

his conviction is dead in the water

because the case law is clear and he

loses loses loses I think it very

unlikely the Supreme Court will look at

that and say you know what we're just

going to throw out all of the

long-standing case law and we're going

to go ahead and hear um Steve bannon's

appeal so I do think right now um Steve

Bannon is likely looking at a short

fused report date to the Federal Bureau

of Prisons to begin serving his

four-month sentence Glen I want to talk

for a second about the judge who allowed

Steve Bannon to walk free pending in his

appeal that was Judge Carl Nichols uh is

there any recourse against the judge who

who had his decision overturned or like

can judges just make these rulings then

be completely wrong on their face and

they'll be overturned by higher courts

and that's it they just they're just you

know there's there's no recourse against

these people yeah Brian what a

difference a judge makes and it

shouldn't be that way with respect to

the equal application of our laws so the

judge who presided over Steve bannon's

trial is a trump appointee named Carl

Nichols for whatever reason even though

Steve Bannon had absolutely no viable

issues on appeal Carl Nichols said no

worries Steve stay you don't have to

report to the Bureau of Prisons to serve

your sentence go do your podcast you can

continue to try to undermine American

democracy all good and you know Steve

Bannon has been out for well over a year

pending this appeal let's compare that

to Peter Navaro who was convicted of the

exact same two charges two charges of

contempt of congress one for violating a

subpoena for Testimony one for violating

a subpoena for documents he offered

largely the same defenses as Steve

Bannon at trial he went down in flames

and was quickly convicted by the jury

just like Steve Bannon at trial but the

judge who presided over Peter Navarro's

case Amit MAA is a good Fair impartial

independent judge and he said no Peter

Navaro you will report to the Federal

Bureau of Prisons and serve your four

Monon sentence you can appeal your

conviction but I'm not going to leave

you out and about you've gone to trial

you've been convicted you've been

sentenced you have no real issues on

appeal anyway so let's go back to what a

difference a judge makes now to answer

your question is there any recourse

against somebody like judge Nichols for

making what was obviously a boneheaded

decision the answer is no because it was

still within the judge's discretion to

say you know what maybe he'll have a

winning argument on appeal it doesn't

look that way but in an abundance of

caution I'm going to leave him out

pending appeal because he would have

served his entire four month sentence

and in the event he had a winning appeal

well it's already kind of water under

the bridge because he would have served

his four months now he could still

vacate his conviction and not have it on

his record uh but now let's remember

Steve Bannon will have these convictions

on his record moving forward but you

know it really does boil down to the

judge but this is one that was within

Carl Nichols discretion even though he

was dead wrong in my estimation so there

really is no recourse against judge

Nichols for making this boneheaded

decision bring us into this world a

little bit is there any shame for these

people when they do something that is so

flatly wrong on its face like like will

will his stock within the judicial

Community go down I mean you have the

judge cannons the judge Nichols now who

are so nakedly partisan uh in in

deference to the Republican Party does

that have any impact within this

community because you've said before

that this is you know this is a

relatively small community of of lawyers

and and judges these are great questions

Brian and it makes me long for my days

as a career prosecutor in the courts of

Washington DC um so you know let me

start by saying it seems like at least

for some we're living in a post shame

Society no allegiance to the facts no

allegiance to the truth little

allegiance to the law or the

Constitution and hypocrisy contradicting

yourself from day-to-day doesn't be

doesn't seem to be a concern for many

now I think most people do care about

those things most people want to do the

right thing and can actually experience

shame but with respect to Donald Trump

and some of his Loyalists and flunkies

including some of the judges he

appointed I have to wonder if they have

the capacity to feel shame but let me

let me go to what you said about DC

criminal justice circles being very

small circles I've always said DC is a

Big Town I've always said DC is a big

city but in criminal justice circles

it's more of a small town everybody

knows everybody perhaps one or two

degrees removed so when you ask the

question Brian and it's exactly the

right question um is there are there any

repercussions in the DC Justice circles

I can answer that with a definitive yes

and the reason I can answer it with a

definitive yes is because I've spent so

much time in those cour houses in DC not

not only as a career prosecutor but more

recently when I retired from the

Department of Justice MSNBC would have

me covering trials so I covered um the

oathkeepers trials the the proud boy

boys trial the Bannon trial the Navaro

trial the Roger Stone trial and I talk

to everybody that I have known for

decades in and around the cour houses

including people in every aspect of the

criminal justice system in DC and I can

tell you there were lots of

conversations um concerning Carl

Nicholls decision to leave banon out

pending appeal as compared to judge

Matea's decision to do what I believe

was the right thing in the interest of

justice and put Peter Navaro in prison

while he was pending his appeal I would

say everybody in DC criminal justice uh

circles took note of what Carl Nichols

did and I didn't come across many

Defenders of Nicholls decision to leave

Bannon out and about to continue to try

to destroy our democracy pending appeal

and the fact that that decision was then

overturned only highlights how wrong it

was with that said we'll leave it there

we will continue to follow uh Steve

Bannon as he works his way through

through what I hope is a very short

appeals process and ultimately lands

himself in prison as well as the rest of

the prosecutions that Donald Trump is

contending with right now so for those

watching if you want to follow along

please make sure to subscribe the links

to both of our channels are right here

on the screen and as I've said before

we're doing daily comprehensive coverage

of this prosecution happening in

Manhattan as well as the other trials

that are forthcoming right now I'm Brian

teller Cohen and I'm Glenn kersner

you're watching the legal breakdown

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