DOJ snaps back at Bannon asking to delay criminal contempt trial over January 6 hearings' publicity, says that he has 'barely been mentioned'

• The DOJ wants a DC judge to reject Steve Bannon's ask to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial.
• The criminal trial is set to begin on July 18, after Bannon rejected January 6 probe subpoenas.

The Department of Justice asked a DC judge on Friday to reject Trump ally Steve Bannon's request to delay his contempt-of-Congress trial, arguing that the January 6 hearings have not revolved around him to the point of distraction.

On Wednesday, Bannon's lawyers asked a DC judge to delay his July 18 trial, citing a "media blitz" from the public January 6 committee hearings and saying the request was "due to the unprecedented level of prejudicial pretrial publicity."

DOJ lawyers said that Bannon is not as popular as he thinks he is.

"The Defendant's motion gives the false impression — through general statistics about the volume of viewership of the Committee's hearings and overall media coverage of the Committee's hearings — that all of the Committee's hearings and the attendant media coverage is about him," DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Friday. "The truth is just the opposite — the Defendant has barely been mentioned in the Committee's hearings or the resulting media coverage of them."

Bannon was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2021 on two counts of contempt of Congress, after refusing to engage with a subpoena from the January 6 committee. His criminal trial could line up with the January 6 hearings if no delay is granted.

He pleaded not guilty at the time and argued that the committee needed to sort out which materials would be restricted due to former President Donald Trump's executive privilege before he would comply.

Attorneys representing Bannon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.