With his fraud trial in Manhattan a little over a month away, Stephen K. Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, is taking a page from the president’s legal playbook.
Mr. Bannon has delayed the proceeding multiple times. He has used courthouse hallways to broadcast his views. And in a filing on Tuesday, his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, accused the Manhattan district attorney of political persecution.
In the motion, Mr. Bannon’s team said that the case should be dismissed because it was “vindictive” and an “unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law.”
The motion made explicit reference to the history of the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, who won a conviction of President Trump in May. It also targeted New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, whose civil fraud lawsuit resulted in a hefty fine for President Trump.
A spokeswoman with the district attorney’s office declined to comment on Tuesday, saying the office would respond in court filings.
Mr. Bannon’s strategy is familiar to those who have closely followed the president’s legal travails. Mr. Trump accused both New York offices of persecution during their yearslong investigations into his conduct. Though he lost both cases, Mr. Trump was able to convince many supporters during his re-election campaign that he was unjustly targeted.
But it is unclear whether Mr. Bannon, who is not running for office, will benefit from the strategy as he fights charges of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud. Prosecutors accused him of swindling contributors who had paid for the construction of a southern border wall.
His trial is scheduled to begin on March 4.
Mr. Bannon had faced federal charges for similar conduct but was pardoned by President Trump in 2021.
The following year, Mr. Bannon was charged by the district attorney’s office. Since then, Mr. Bannon has twice changed lawyers. In a hearing last week, Mr. Bannon said he would “need people who are more aggressive and will use every tool in the toolbox.”
The case, he told the judge, was “political prosecution — and persecution.”
Less than a week later, Mr. Aidala, who had joined Mr. Bannon’s team, filed the motion.
Mr. Aidala argued that had Mr. Bannon not been an ally of President Trump, he would not have been charged.
“All Americans are entitled to a fair and impartial judicial system as it is the cornerstone of our society,” Mr. Aidala said in a statement on Tuesday. “The prosecution of Steven Bannon is a clear example of the selective abuse of due process and our American laws.”
In the motion, Mr. Aidala asserted that New York’s legislative and executive branches worked “hand in hand” to pass a law that allowed the prosecution of people whom President Trump had pardoned on federal charges.
But the law is not at issue in Mr. Bannon’s case, as the filing on Tuesday concedes. Because Mr. Bannon’s federal case did not go to trial, double jeopardy would not apply to his state case.
Manhattan prosecutors have dismissed similar arguments from Mr. Bannon in past filings.
Mr. Bannon’s federal pardon did not happen because the charges were unjust or because he was innocent, they wrote in a filing last year.
“This prosecution is entirely appropriate and just,” they wrote, adding that “allowing Bannon to avoid consequences for his criminal conduct solely due to his economic and political power despite the overwhelming evidence of his guilt would surely breed cynicism.”
Selective prosecution motions are often long shots, said Michael F. Bachner, a defense lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor.
“Although I think they’re going to lose the selective prosecution argument,” he said of Mr. Bannon’s team, they have raised some arguments that are “worthy of consideration.”
During his civil and criminal trials, Mr. Trump frequently accused law enforcement officials of political persecution, including Ms. James, who in September 2022 sued Mr. Trump, accusing him of committing fraud by manipulating his net worth.
Mr. Trump’s argument was rebuffed by multiple judges, and last year, a New York judge found Mr. Trump liable and penalized him hundreds of millions of dollars. President Trump has appealed the ruling.
