This Thursday, a federal judge in the United States ordered the far-right Steve Bannon, who was an advisor to former Republican President Donald Trump (2017-2021), who enters prison on July 1 to serve his sentence for contempt of Congress, something that Bannon himself called political persecution.

“They want to silence the MAGA movement, silence the grassroots conservatives and silence President Trump,” he said in statements to the media shortly after the ruling that ordered his entry into jail was announced.

With the acronym MAGA (Make America Great AgainMake America Great Again, in English) alluded to Trump’s motto in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns and to those who support that proclamation.

Bannon was convicted in October 2022 to four months in prison for having refused to appear before the committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol, which took place while Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

“We are going to win in the Supreme Court”

“There is nothing that can silence me. There is no prison that can silence me,” he added from outside the federal courthouse in Washington. The far-right, 70, is one of two former members of Trump’s inner circle who faced legal proceedings for not participating in the parliamentary investigation.

The second, the former advisor to the former president in the White House Peter Navarro, entered prison last March to serve another four-month sentence. Bannon had appealed the sentence, but a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia confirmed his criminal conviction on May 10.

The sentence had been suspended pending the resolution of the appeal, according to NBC News. The committee wanted Bannon testified because he believed he had some prior knowledge about what was going to happen on January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the headquarters of Congress. There were five deaths and nearly 140 officers injured.

Now, Bannon’s legal team, as stated by his lawyer, David Schoen, believes that the case should be tried in the US Supreme Court because it raises an issue of separation of powers. Bannon affirmed that he will fight his conviction: “We are going to win in the Supreme Court,” he concluded.