Viktor Bout’s defense team is asking the judge who oversaw his conviction to throw out the guilty verdict and hold a new trial. Lawyer Albert Y. Dayan cites a New York Times story in which the jury forewoman realized she had seen the film “Lord of War,” loosely based on Bout’s exploits, but failed to mention that during pre-trial juror questioning.

Meanwhile, a NY Times op-ed on Bout and concerns about how to deal with the world’s gray and black-market arms trade cites reporting from “Merchant of Death” and Los Angeles Times investigations of Bout’s dealings in Iraq.

—NYT, “A lawyer for Viktor Bout, the Russian businessman convicted in a plot to sell weapons to Colombian terrorists, has asked a federal judge to overturn the verdict and hold a new trial because one of the jurors may have been unduly influenced by a Nicolas Cage movie based on Mr. Bout’s life.”

—NYT, “Mr. Bout’s client list in Iraq made for intriguing and damning reading: The United States Air Mobility Command, Federal Express, Fluor and KBR, among others. At the time Mr. Bout was supposedly wanted by the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., as well as being the subject of an Interpol arrest warrant.”