Steve Bannon, the former Trump administration aid, has lost his appeal to avoid prison time. 

NBC News reports that a federal appeals court has unanimously upheld his criminal contempt of Congress conviction.

This all comes as former President Donald Trump is facing his own legal troubles - or at least legal troubles that have been created by White House-backed lawyers.

Trump, instead of campaigning, has been tied up in a New York City courtroom for weeks. At the same time, the judge has prevented him from publicly defending himself. Trump is going to take a break from the case on May 17, when he will attend his son Barron's graduation.

Background

Bannon is about to go to prison because he refused to comply with the highly partisan U.S. House Of Representatives' Jan. 6 subcommittee.

This is the same committee that was tasked with investigating the Capitol protests of Jan. 6, 2021. The committee, however - which was run by Democrats and a couple of anti-Trump Republicans - turned itself into an anti-Trump propaganda committee. It was even caught destroying evidence that would have exonerated Trump of wrongdoing.

The committee wanted Bannon to testify before it and to provide documents to it, but he refused. This, then, led the committee to subpoena Bannon, and he refused to comply with that as well.

As a result, Bannon was charged with contempt of Congress, and, because the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the hands of the President Joe Biden and the Democrats, the DOJ prosecuted Bannon and got a conviction.

He has been sentenced to four months in prison and to pay $6,500 in fines.

Appeal denied

Bannon, most recently, appealed his conviction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The, on Friday, upheld his conviction.

In a 20-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the court said that, if it were to grant Bannon's appeal, then it would set a bad precedent by "hamstringing Congress's investigatory authority."

The judges also rejected Bannon's argument that he ought not to be put in prison because, in ignoring the subpoena, he was simply following the advice of his lawyers. The judges, citing the U.S. Supreme Court, said that this is "no defense at all."

The matter, though, is not over just yet. Bannon has made it clear that he will appeal this ruling.

In a brief statement on the ruling, Bannon said, "I want to say one thing — I respect the judge, the sentence he came down with today is his decision. I've been totally respectful to this entire process on the legal side."