Longtime Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon asked a judge to delay his July criminal contempt trial until the fall, arguing that potential jurors could be swayed by the “media blitz” surrounding the House Jan. 6 committee’s televised hearings.
“The media saturation in June and the upcoming hearings in July — right before trial — warrants a continuance” until sometime after Oct. 15 to preserve Bannon’s constitutional right to a fair trial, his lawyer said in a filing in federal court in Washington on Wednesday.
The request comes on the heels of one of the most explosive days of hearings, when Cassidy Hutchinson, a top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, revealed fresh details about Trump’s behavior on the day a mob of his supporters tried to violently overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.
