Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Donald Trump who both served him and harmed him, is expected to be charged Thursday with fraud for having participated in a fundraising operation to build the wall on the southern border of the United States, and plans to turn himself in.
They are not directly political charges, although all political reading exists in this case, but accusations that imply the deception to which Bannon subjected several contributors to his protector’s campaigns.
These are charges brought by the Southern New York State Attorney’s Office, although they are based on the same conduct that federal prosecutors accused Bannon of in 2020. Back then, before leaving the White House, Trump pardoned Bannon, but presidential pardons do not apply to state investigations.
Today Wednesday at dawn, in a preview of its edition, the Washington Post was the first to report plans for Bannon’s surrender after learning that the Manhattan district attorney’s office had opened an investigation into Bannon and the “We Build The Wall” fundraising effort.
Over the past several months, several people close to Bannon have been brought before the state grand jury, CNN reported. Bannon released a statement Tuesday night, in part calling the indictment “false charges” and “nothing more than a partisan-political weapon of the criminal justice system.”
“I am proud to be a leading voice in protecting our borders and building a wall to keep our country safe from drugs and violent criminals,” he said in the statement. And he added: “They are coming for all of us, not just President Trump and me. I will never stop fighting. In fact, I haven’t even started fighting yet. They will have to kill me first.”
His lawyer refused to comment on the matter to various outlets.
Contempt trial begins against Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser and campaign manager
As reported by CNN, prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have charged Bannon and three other individuals alleging they defrauded donors in the border wall effort, which raised more than $25 million. Dollars.
Bannon was accused of siphoning off more than $1 million to pay an alleged accomplice and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. Prosecutors alleged that the donors, including some in New York, were falsely told that all the money they contributed would go toward building the wall with Mexico.
Prosecutors have brought up bank records and have worked quietly on the investigation over the past year while investigating Trump and his real estate business, CNN has learned.
But the district attorney’s office deferred a decision to charge Bannon until federal prosecutors concluded their case against his three co-defendants, who were not pardoned. In April, two of the alleged co-conspirators in the border wall effort, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which involves using the telephone or email to “conspire.”
Kolfage also pleaded guilty to two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of wire fraud in connection with filing a false tax return.
Timothy Shea, a fourth man charged in the fundraising effort, was indicted on multiple counts of conspiracy for the alleged scheme, but in June a judge mistrial after the jury reported they did not reach a unanimous agreement.
