Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media before entering federal court on March 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. Bannon is facing contempt of Congress charges related to the investigation into the January 6, 2021 siege. US Capitol.
Ting Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon has again asked a federal judge to delay his upcoming trial on criminal contempt charges, this time in one of his previous comments during Tuesday’s hearing of the House Select Committee. Citing repeated references to something. January 6 Capital riot.
Bannon’s lawyers also said in a court filing Wednesday that “the defense just learned today” that CNN will air a one-hour documentary on Bannon on Sunday evening, the day his trial for contempt of Congress is held in Washington, D.C. is about to begin.
Defense lawyers said both incidents pose a “very serious risk of bias here” among jurors against Bannon, who had been prevented from complying with a summons issued by a January 6 House panel seeking documents and his testimony. To be selected for his trial on charges of denial.
“There’s Nothing Magic About July 18th [the trial’s scheduled start date] Which could possibly justify exposure to a fair trial for Mr Bannon’s fundamental “constitutional rights”, the lawyers wrote to Judge Carl Nichols.
He asked the judge to adjourn the hearing after October 15.
Nichols on Monday rejected Bannon’s earlier bid to postpone the contempt trial by three months after his lawyers argued that media coverage of the House hearings would harm his right to a fair trial.
On the same day Nichols also stated that Bannon could not argue at trial that he failed to comply with the summons on grounds of executive privilege, and called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the January 6 panel as witnesses. stopped from
The judge’s ruling effectively affected Bannon’s potential defense, and one of his lawyers complained in court, “What’s the point of prosecuting here if there’s no defense?”
Bannon, who served just seven months as Trump’s top White House adviser, faces at least 30 days in prison if convicted of two counts of contempt.
Renewing a request to delay the trial on Wednesday, Bannon’s lawyers said Tuesday’s House committee hearing featured video excerpts from lawmakers speaking on his podcast on January 5, 2021, “edited for maximum inflammatory effect” went.”
“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” Bannon said on that video. “All converge and now we’re moving, as they say, point of attack. OK? Point of attack tomorrow. I’ll tell you this, it’s not going to happen like you think it’s going to happen. OK? It’s going to be quite extraordinarily different. And all I can say is strap in.”
Later that night, a committee member said, Bannon and then-President Donald Trump spoke on the telephone for six minutes.
The next day, thousands of Trump supporters rioted outside and inside the Capitol, hours delaying the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory by a joint session of Congress.
Bannon’s defense filing on Wednesday also detailed a CNN special report to air Sunday, titled “Divide We Fall.”
“The special report on Mr. Bannon, aired on the eve of the trial, is being widely publicized by major CNN hosts along with trailers and special announcements,” the filing said.
“We’ll rule for 100 years,” Bannon said in a CNN trailer for the special show, the filing noted.
A narrator then says on the trailer, “In rare interviews, CNN investigates the man and his master plan,” and a video clip shows former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale saying, “Bannon plays calling are.”
Bannon’s lawyers wrote, “The word ‘master plan’ is used in the teaser to describe Mr. Bannon’s alleged conspiracies, with an apparently deliberate reference to this famously loaded term referring to the most diabolical conspiracy in history.” has given.”
The sentence ends with a footnote with a description of the book entitled “Hitler’s Masterplan, 1933–1945”, which the publisher description detailed as “Hitler’s unrealistic vision for a Europe dominated by the Third Reich.”
Bannon’s lawyers wrote, “The Special Reports documentary, broadcast on this widely circulated network, would be extraordinarily inflammatory and overwhelmingly hostile to a potential juror, who begins serving at this trial the next day.”