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Steve Bannon Asks to Replace Lawyers Again Ahead of February Criminal Trial

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Steve Bannon Asks to Replace Lawyers Again Ahead of February Criminal Trial

With 43 days left before the start of Stephen K. Bannon’s trial in Manhattan, he asked a judge on Monday to be allowed to replace his lawyers for a second time, a move that could delay the trial. Again.

Mr. Bannon, who is charged with defrauding contributors who paid for the construction of a southern border wall, first replaced his defense team in 2023 after one of his lawyers said there had been “a complete breakdown in communication.”

In November, the New York judge overseeing the trial, April A. Newbauer, pushed back its start date from December to February, saying “we’re not changing it again.”

But on Monday, the lawyer that Mr. Bannon now wants to represent him, Arthur Aidala, said that he did not have enough time to adequately prepare for the Feb. 25 trial because there was so much information “to swallow and process.”

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” he told the judge. “I just don’t have, or we, I should say, we don’t have, enough information.”

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Justice Newbauer ordered Mr. Bannon to return to court on Jan. 22 for the parties to make their arguments about his request.

Mr. Bannon, an influential right-wing media figure, was a staple in Donald J. Trump’s orbit for years — he was an architect of Mr. Trump’s 2016 election victory and served as a White House strategist. In recent years, he has been embroiled in a multitude of controversies.

In October, Mr. Bannon was released from prison after serving four months on contempt charges for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena for information about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This week, he catapulted back into the news after rebuking Elon Musk, the newest star in the president-elect’s team, calling him a “truly evil person.”

His work in Mr. Trump’s first administration led to Mr. Bannon’s legal troubles in New York. And his attempts to delay his case in Manhattan bear a resemblance to Mr. Trump’s own methods of stalling prosecutions.

The allegations against Mr. Bannon stem from his involvement with a group called We Build the Wall, which raised more than $25 million from donors to help construct a barrier between the United States and Mexico, Mr. Trump’s signature policy initiative during his first term.

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Mr. Bannon played a senior role in the group, which promised donors that their contributions would be used only to build the barrier. However, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office have said that was a lie, and have accused Mr. Bannon with taking part in a conspiracy to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of the group’s officers.

Mr. Bannon faced similar federal charges, and several co-conspirators went to prison. But Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon during his final hours in office in 2021, when the president wiped away the convictions and prison sentences of a roster of politicians and business executives.

Last year, lawyers who helped Mr. Bannon secure his pardon won a judgment against him for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal fees.

Mr. Trump cannot pardon Mr. Bannon on state charges, so New York’s case against him has chugged along.

Mr. Aidala, whom Mr. Bannon now wants to represent him, is a ubiquitous figure in New York’s criminal courtrooms who is as comfortable before a judge as he is before the press — like many of his clients. His roster includes Rudolph W. Giuliani, Harvey Weinstein and a former top aide to Mayor Eric Adams.

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On Monday, Mr. Aidala said Mr. Bannon approached his law firm in December, but he declined to represent Mr. Bannon because of another trial scheduled for January. His firm then left that case for unrelated reasons, making him available for Mr. Bannon, he said.

Another complication, according to Mr. Aidala, is that in the spring he is scheduled to represent Mr. Weinstein on sex crimes charges. And Mr. Weinstein has asked for his trial to be moved up, which could interfere with the start of Mr. Bannon’s case, Mr. Aidala told the judge.

“I don’t want you to think anyone is trying to play any games or do any slick lawyering,” Mr. Aidala said. “I told you everything that’s a factual basis for where we are here today.”

Justice Newbauer said she was concerned that replacing the law firm that had been driving the case might result in “starting from scratch.”

Prosecutors also resisted the request. Jeffrey Levinson, an assistant district attorney, told the judge that they were “indifferent as to who represents Mr. Bannon, as long as the case goes to trial as scheduled.”

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“He is clearly trying to make a substitution of counsel for the purpose of delay,” Mr. Levinson said.

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Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

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Video: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

new video loaded: We Analyzed the Deadly Crash at LaGuardia

Our graphics reporter Lazaro Gamio breaks down the second-by-second analysis leading up to the deadly plane crash at LaGuardia Airport.

By Lazaro Gamio, Coleman Lowndes and James Surdam

March 27, 2026

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Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

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Video: LaGuardia Crash Survivors Recount Ordeal

“I just thought, please don’t let this be how my life ends. I’m not ready to die. When we landed, it was a very rough landing. Like we landed and the plane jolted back up, and that caught a lot of passengers off guard. Everyone kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then you hear the pilot braking, and it was like just this grinding sound.” “Everybody was shocked everywhere. There was — there’s people screaming. The plane just veered off course. I mean, it was just — it all happened so quickly, but it all felt just like a very dire situation.” “Oh, God. Oh my goodness. That’s crazy.” “People were bleeding from their nose, cuts and scrapes. I saw black eyes, all different types of facial contusions, bruising and bleeding. I was sitting by the exit door, and I opened the exit door. There was a sense of camaraderie amongst the survivors. Nobody was pushing, shoving, ‘I got to get out first.’” “The plane actually tipped back as we were leaving, as people were getting off the plane. That was when the nose kind of fell off the front of the plane, and the whole plane kind of went up to what we’d seen in all the pictures of the plane’s nose in the air.” And there was no slide when we got out. A lot of us were jumping off of the airplane wing to get down. And when I got out and I saw that the front of the plane, how destroyed it was, I just was — I was in shock.” “It was only really when I was outside of the plane, looking back at the plane, and I had seen what had happened to the cockpit, and then just like this sense of dread overcame me, where I was just like, wow, a lot of people might have just been pretty badly hurt.” “I’m grateful to the pilots who were so courageous and brave, and acted swiftly, and they saved our lives. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to come home to my family. I’m forever indebted to them. They’re my heroes.”

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Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

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Video: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

new video loaded: Passenger Jet and Fire Truck Crash at LaGuardia Airport, Leaving 2 Dead

The two pilots of a Air Canada Express jet were killed after a collision with a Port Authority fire truck on Sunday at LaGuardia Airport in New York.

By Axel Boada and Monika Cvorak

March 23, 2026

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