Steve Bannon’s defense attorney said in court filings Thursday night that he was blindsided by federal prosecutors’ opposition last month to dismissing an indictment against the former White House strategist, despite a pardon from former President Donald Trump in the final hours of his presidency.

Robert Costello, who is representing Bannon in the “We Build the Wall” case, told a Manhattan federal judge that an alternative request by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office to “administratively terminate” the case against Bannon was a “misnomer” because it “does not actually terminate the legal proceeding,” and actually “presupposes future action in the case.”