Steve Bannon Trial: Hard To Find Impartial Jurors Because They’ve Heard Him Speak

Steve Bannon had to know that his trial, as someone who is a public figure, known for controversy, and connected to the former President of the United States, had the potential to become a giant, messy, circus. The judge running the show, however, seems to be taking every precaution in advance, potentially circumventing complaints about fairness and bias.

Bannon has talked a big game in advance of the hearing, telling his podcast listeners that he’s not the one who needs prayers, his “enemies” are — because he’s going to “savage” them.

Bannon says he is going to go "medieval" & "savage" on him enemies before begging the Jan 6 committee to allow him to testify publicly

"My offer is out there .. give me a date, a time, a room #, a microphone, & holy Bible .. boom"

A public Bannon testimony would be a disaster pic.twitter.com/Y40gKFxRLg

— Justin Horowitz (@justinhorowitz_) July 12, 2022

“Pray for our enemies, okay? Because we’re going medieval on these people. We’re going to savage our enemies. So pray for them. Who needs prayers? Not MAGA, War Room, and certainly not Stephen K. Bannon.”

Still, it seems that Bannon’s best shot might be to get a jury that’s never heard of him — because reporting from legal analyst Glenn Kirshner so far suggests that people who have heard of him aren’t on his side.

Jury selection in the Bannon case has been slow going. Only 5 jurors have been qualified thus far. The jurors have ranged from people who know nothing about Bannon to people who know lots about Bannon, and what they know leads them to candidly admit …

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 18, 2022

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Another juror said he thought he could be fair and impartial but added, “honestly, I’m not a fan of Steve Bannon, personally.” The judge erred on the side of caution and stuck that juror as well. Jury selection continues.

— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) July 18, 2022

As of shortly past noon on Monday, Kirshner shared that there had only been five jurors confirmed, because of others indicating that what they knew of Bannon — his own words and his associations — didn’t make him someone they could assume was being honest on the stand.

Bannon has already been hit hard in the case before jury selection even began, with the judge denying requests to delay the trial after Bannon finally offered to talk to the January 6th Committee (recall, his defiance of their subpoena is the reason he’s facing contempt charges to begin with), which officials have said they don’t believe is in good faith, but an attempt to gain further delays.