Federal prosecutors filed a motion Sunday night to block former Trump adviser Steve Bannon from making public documents he receives from the Justice Department, in what they charge are an attempt to “try this case in the media rather than in court.”

Bannon, who is charged with two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the committee investigating the January 6th insurrection, has previously declared he will “go on the offense” against the charges.

“The defense’s misleading claims, failure to confer, unexplained wholesale opposition, and extrajudicial statements make clear the defense’s real purpose: to abuse criminal discovery to try this case in the media rather than in court,” the prosecutors wrote in the filing.

Bannon’s lawyers are working to unseal all evidence in the case, including grand jury testimony, which federal prosecutors are fighting against, claiming to do so would amount to “witness tampering.”

“Allowing the defendant to publicly disseminate reports of witness statements will have the collateral effect of witness tampering because it will expose witnesses to public commentary on their potential testimony before trial and allow a witness to review summaries of other witnesses’ statements recounting the same event or events,” the prosecutors argued.

Bannon’s failure to cooperate and public defiance of Congress has made national headlines as Bannon has vowed to make the legal battle “hell” for the Biden administration.

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