Former Trump aide Steve Bannon cites Jan. 6 Capitol riot hearing in seeking delay of criminal contempt trial

Former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon has again asked a federal judge to delay his upcoming trial on criminal contempt charges, this time citing repeated references to some of his past comments during a hearing Tuesday of a special House committee. investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

Bannon’s lawyers also said in a court filing Wednesday that “the defense learned just today” that CNN would air an hour-long documentary about Bannon on Sunday night, the day before his contempt of Congress trial begins in Washington, D.C.

Defense lawyers said both events create a “very serious risk of prejudice here” against Bannon among the jurors who will be selected to try him on charges of willful refusal to comply with subpoenas issued by the House panel on Jan. 6, requesting documents and his testimony.

“There is nothing magical about July 18 [the trial’s scheduled start date] that could possibly justify risking Mr. Bannon’s “fundamental” constitutional rights to a fair trial, lawyers for Judge Carl Nichols wrote.

They asked the judge to adjourn the trial until after October 15.

Nichols on Monday rejected an earlier bid by Bannon to delay his contempt trial for three months after his lawyers argued that media coverage of the House hearings would undermine his right to a fair trial.

That same day, Nichols also said Bannon could not argue at trial that he did not comply with the subpoena on the grounds of executive privilege, and barred him from calling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the January 6 panel as witnesses.

The judge’s rulings effectively nullified much of Bannon’s potential defense and prompted one of his lawyers to complain in court, “What’s the point of going to trial here if there are no defenses?”

Bannon, who has served just seven months as Trump’s top White House adviser, faces at least 30 days in jail if convicted of the two counts of contempt of court.

In their court filing Wednesday renewing their request to delay the trial, Bannon’s lawyers said lawmakers at Tuesday’s House committee hearing showed video excerpts of his speech on his Jan. 5, 2021, podcast that were ” edited for maximum inflammatory effect’.

“All hell is going to break loose tomorrow,” Bannon said in that video. “Everything is converging and now we are, as they say, the point of attack. Right? Point of attack tomorrow. I’ll tell you this, it’s not going to happen the way you think it’s going to. OK? it will be quite different. And all I can say is buckle up.”

Later that evening, a committee member said, Bannon and then-President Donald Trump spoke on the phone for six minutes.

The next day, thousands of Trump supporters rioted outside and inside the Capitol, delaying for hours the certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory by a joint session of Congress.

Bannon’s defense statement Wednesday also detailed a CNN special scheduled to air Sunday, which is titled “Divided, We Fall.”

“The special report on Mr. Bannon that aired on the eve of the trial was widely promoted with a trailer and special messages from key CNN anchors,” the filing said.

A CNN trailer for the special shows Bannon saying, “We’re going to rule for 100 years,” the filing noted.

A narrator then says in the trailer, “In rare interviews, CNN investigates the man and his master plan,” and a video shows former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale saying, “Bannon calls the game.”

Bannon’s lawyers wrote: “The teaser uses the term ‘Master Plan’ to describe Mr. Bannon’s alleged machinations, with a clear deliberate reference to that well-known weighty term referring to the most diabolical conspiracy in history.”

This sentence ends with a footnote to a description of a book titled “Hitler’s Master Plan, 1933-1945,” in which the publisher details “Hitler’s unrealized vision of a Europe dominated by the Third Reich.”

Bannon’s lawyers wrote: “A documentary about the special report broadcast on this widely distributed network will undoubtedly be highly inflammatory and enormously prejudicial to a prospective juror who will begin work in this trial the next day.”