Despite Trump pardon, Steve Bannon finds himself in deeper trouble

Steve Bannon, the supposed Svengali of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, received a presidential pardon for his actual and alleged federal crimes during Trump’s final days in office. Now Bannon, a one-time White House strategic adviser, is being forced to pay up — literally — for the effort.

On Monday, a New York judge ordered Bannon to pay nearly half a million dollars in legal fees for a variety of services, including the effort to secure his pardon. Bannon was initially sued in February by his former law firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP. A partner in the firm, Robert Costello, reportedly angered Bannon by speaking to federal authorities about the House select committee investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Bannon is currently appealing a federal court conviction and related four-month jail sentence for contempt of Congress for refusing to appear after being subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 committee.

In her six-page ruling, Judge Arlene Bluth dismissed Bannon’s objections to his former legal representation because, she said, he “did not adequately assert that he timely objected to these invoices.” Under Bluth’s order, Bannon is required to pay $480,487.87 in unpaid bills as well as “reasonable legal fees.”