WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) — Stephen Bannon, a long-time ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. Committee leaders called the verdict “a victory for the rule of law”.

Bannon, 68, was convicted after a four-day trial in federal court on two counts: one for refusing to appear for a deposition and the other for refusing to provide documents in response to the committee’s subpoena. The jury of eight men and four women deliberated for just under three hours.

He faces up to two years in federal prison when he’s sentenced on October 21. Each count carries a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.

David Schoen, one of Bannon’s lawyers, said outside the courthouse the verdict would not stand. “This is round one,” Schoen said. “You will see this case reversed on appeal.”

Likewise, Bannon himself said, “We may have lost the battle here today; we’re not going to lose this war.”

He thanked the jurors for their service and said he had only one disappointment —”and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J-6 committee didn’t have the guts to come down here and testify”.

Prosecutors were just as firm on the other side of the verdict.

“The subpoena to Stephen Bannon was not an invitation that could be rejected or ignored,” Matthew Graves, the US attorney in Washington said in a statement. “Mr Bannon had an obligation to appear before the House Select Committee to give testimony and provide documents. His refusal to do so was deliberate, and now a jury has found that he must pay the consequences.”

The committee sought Bannon’s testimony over his involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Bannon had initially argued that his testimony was protected by Trump’s claim of executive privilege. But the House panel and the Justice Department contend such a claim is dubious because Trump had fired Bannon from the White House in 2017 and Bannon was thus a private citizen when he was consulting with the then president in the run-up to the riot on January 6, 2021.

Bannon’s lawyers tried to argue during the trial that he didn’t refuse to cooperate and that the dates “were in flux”. They pointed to the fact that Bannon had reversed course shortly before the trial kicked off — after Trump waived his objection — and had offered to testify before the committee.

In closing arguments Friday morning, both sides re-emphasised their primary positions from the trial. The prosecution maintained that Bannon willfully ignored clear and explicit deadlines, and the defence claimed Bannon believed those deadlines were flexible and subject to negotiation.

Bannon was served with a subpoena on September 23 last year, ordering him to provide requested documents to the committee by October 7 and appear in person by October 14. Bannon was indicted in November on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, a month after the Justice Department received the House panel’s referral.

Bannon’s attorney Evan Corcoran told jurors Friday in his closing arguments that those deadlines were mere “placeholders” while lawyers on each side negotiated terms.