Trump Advisor Bannon Seeks a Trial Delay on Contempt Charge

WASHINGTON — Former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon is asking a Washington, D.C., federal judge to delay his trial for contempt of Congress after recent hearings of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol created an “unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity.”

Bannon is scheduled for trial July 18 but wants it rescheduled to at least mid-October.

His motion to the court apparently referred to the shocking testimony this week of former White House staff member Cassidy Hutchinson, who directly implicated former President Donald Trump in the Jan. 6, 2021, violence. 

Bannon refused to comply with a subpoena from the committee, which led to the contempt charge against him.

“When trial was scheduled [in January], neither the court nor the parties were aware of the June and upcoming July media blitz by” the House select committee’s hearings, said Bannon’s motion to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Bannon helped lead Trump’s 2016 campaign for president and served on his White House staff as a political advisor. The House select committee wanted him to sit for a deposition and turn over any of his documents related to the Jan. 6 attack, where Trump supporters tried to prevent Congress from certifying a presidential election win for Joe Biden.

The committee turned its attention to Bannon after his podcast mentioned Trump’s Jan. 6 speech on the White House Ellipse in the days before the event.

On his Jan. 5, 2021, podcast, Bannon said, “All hell is going to break loose tomorrow. Just understand this. All hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

Bannon said in his motion to the court this week that the media frenzy evidenced by television ratings of the recent committee hearings shows he could never get a fair trial now.

An earlier motion from Bannon sought to get the charges against him dismissed because he said the committee violated congressional procedural rules. U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols rejected that argument June 15.

Each of the two contempt charges Bannon faces carries a possible sentence of 30 days to one year in jail and a fine of $1,000.

The case is U.S. v. Bannon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Tom can be reached at [email protected] and @TomRamstack