Attorneys for former Massey Energy
President and CEO Don Blankenship told a federal judge Wednesday they plan to
seek a change of venue.
Blankenship is scheduled to go on trial
next month on charges that he committed fraud by the way he operated the Upper
Big Branch mine in Raleigh County in the months before the 2010 explosion there
that claimed the lives of 29 coal miners.
His attorneys said they want U.S.
District Judge Irene Berger to delay the trial and they plan to ask her to move
it out of southern West Virginia
The trial is currently scheduled for
Jan. 26.
Berger did not make a decision
Wednesday on a motion from several media outlets calling for her to reverse her
gag order in the case.
Blankenship, 64, appeared in person at Wednesday’s hearing.
