Steve Bannon sued by own lawyers over unpaid legal fees

Bannon is appealing a four-month jail sentence stemming from a criminal contempt of Congress conviction

Steven Bannon, the former Trump White House strategist turned convicted felon and conservative podcaster, has been sued by the law firm that represented him in numerous state and federal proceedings over the last few years over unpaid legal fees totaling more than $480,000.

In a civil complaint filed last week in a New York State court, the law firm of Davidoff, Hutcher and Citron said Bannon incurred nearly a million dollars in billed hours and expenses from the firm as one of its partners, Robert Costello, represented him in proceedings starting in November 2020, when Mr Bannon was arrested on fraud charges relating to his promotion of an alleged charity to build a privately funded border wall along the US-Mexico border.

That case was eventually dismissed after Bannon recieved a last-minute presidential pardon from then-president Donald Trump on the day his term in the White House expired, but Mr Costello also represented Bannon during his trial last year for criminal contempt of Congress after he was indicted for defying a subpoena from the House January 6 select committee, as well as several other state court matters.

Of the $855,487.87 in fees and expenses owed by Bannon, the ex-Breitbart News executive only paid $375,000, according to the firm’s civil complaint.

The firm has also asked the court to award it the costs it is incurring to bring the civil action against Bannon, who is currently facing another state-level fraud charge stemming from the wall-building scheme that led to his prior federal indictment.

The former Trump aide also incurred legal fees during the time Mr Costello’s firm was engaged to help Bannon deal with the January 6 panel subpoena, which he ended up blowing off completely.

In June, a Washington DC jury convicted him of contempt of Congress and a federal judge sentenced him to four months in jail. But Bannon’s sentence has been put on hold while he appeals the conviction.

Bannon is also parting company with a separate group of lawyers who are representing him in his criminal case before the New York court over the fake border wall charity. In a court filing, the lawyers said there had been a breakdown in communication with the right-wing podcaster.