much less a conviction. and to ken s point about the appeal, the question in the appeal is what it means to willfully defy a subpoena that s validly issued by a congressional committee and whether willful means simply that you just willfully didn t appear or whether willful is that you were willful even if you relied on the advice of your lawyers. if bannon is right and it s proper for him to introduce the advice of his council, it doesn t necessarily mean he would win. it likely means he would have a new trial and the department of justice would get to unpack all of the advice that his lawyer gave him. the advice of council defense necessitates waiving the attorney-client privilege. and bannon also has, you know, more legal hurdles ahead, right?
but he has stayed that sentence while steve bannon appeals his decisions about what evidence to allow in in the trial. steve bannon will not be doing to prison any time soon. those appeals processes could take months to a year. four months in prison is the sentence. that is less than what the prosecution asked for. they wanted six months. they said they wanted the maximum under the guidelines. they asked for a $200,000 fine and they got $6,500. a significant sentence and the first time in history that someone has been sentenced after being convicted of contempt of congress. that s the sentence here today. four months for steve bannon. again, ken, immediate appeal to this? yes, he s already appealing. and the real issue on appeal is this question of whether he could use the advice of council defense, whether he should have been able to argue to the jury that he was just following his lawyer s instructions in refusing to comply with the
hammer the way that the committee might have liked. still, four months is more than a normal sentence would be for contempt. but i think it will play as, you know, as balanced and not the kind of real serious sentencing could have received, especially that he gets to stay out during appeal. the january 6 committee could also at any moment issue a subpoena for the testimony of the former president himself, for donald trump. when they do, do you think the legal fight that we ve seen here with bannon has an impact on the president or how the committee proceeds? i think the short answer to that is no because the real telling point with committee is how little time they have. a subpoena lasts ome as long as the congress that issues it last. that means it automatically sunsets at end of december. so for both sides, do we have the time to do it, is it worth the fight.
carefully and entered a decision that he thought was appropriate. we certainly fully respect the judge s decision, but we ll be filing a notice of appeal, as the judge indicated. very grateful to the judge for thinking through the issues candidly and it s an extraordinary move to permit a stay pending appeal. it was the appropriate move. there are the standard is whether the case raises substantial issues that reasonable jurists could differ over, meaning, is there a solid chance for an appeal to be successful and there certainly is more than that in this case. i ve said before and i would confirm it, i believe that the appeal in this case is bulletproof. the constitutional issues involved in this case are very important, but mr. bannon never got to tell the reasons for his actions with respect to the subpoena, never got to tell his story because the government insisted from day one on prohibiting any mention, any evidence or any discussion to go
his lawyers. let me suggest something to you. i m seeing some reporting from other reporters in courtroom saying that judge said that bannon has to file his notice afteof appeal or else surrender to the bureau of prisons in mid-november. what does this mean? really nothing. if you don t file an appeal, what he s saying is you get to stay out because i m going to let you try your luck and take the appeal. if he doesn t, if he doesn t meet the jurisdiction requirement of filing a piece of paper, then he s got he s yanked and he goes right back in. gotcha. so one of the many procedure requirems to filing an appeal and a brief happening in an a argument, et cetera. and that could be at a minimum six months or so until the d.c. circuit goes through his issues. one aof the things had to do with far beyond steve bannon. it had to do with what message