Steve Bannon's ex-lawyers sue him over nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal bills

• Steve Bannon's ex-lawyers filed a lawsuit saying he hasn't paid nearly $500,000 in legal bills.
• The firm represented Bannon when he defied his January 6 subpoena.

A law firm that previously represented former White House strategist and right-wing provocateur Stephen Bannon filed a lawsuit against him, asking for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees.

The law firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP, represented Bannon between November 2020 and November 2022 for criminal cases in Manhattan and Washington, DC. The firm employs Robert Costello, an attorney who represented Bannon in two federal cases.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, says the firm billed Bannon $855,487.87 but was paid only $375,000, leaving an outstanding balance of $480,487.87.

"Defendant never raised any objection regarding the correctness of the invoices," the lawsuit says.

Bannon was represented by Costello while fighting a subpoena from the House of Representatives select committee investigating January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. A jury convicted Bannon on contempt of Congress charges brought by federal prosecutors in Washington, DC. The judge sentenced him to four months in prison but allowed him to remain free while he appeals the case.

Costello also represented Bannon after federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York brought fraud charges against him in August 2020, alleging he misused funds from a nonprofit meant to build a US-Mexico border wall after Donald Trump's administration failed to get funds from Congress to build it.

Costello didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Trump pardoned Bannon shortly before leaving office, but the Manhattan district attorney's office brought a similar case against him that remains pending.

Bannon is having trouble with his lawyers in the Manhattan district attorney's case, too.

At a hearing in January, Bannon's attorneys David Schoen and John Mitchell asked the presiding judge to let them drop Bannon as a client.

"There has been a direct breakdown in communications," Schoen said at the hearing, calling their differences over defense strategy "irreconcilable."

The judge, Juan Merchan, gave Bannon until the end of February to find new lawyers, or risk getting one appointed for him.