Two years ago, federal prosecutors charged Stephen K. Bannon with a major scam: helping create a financing pipeline to extract donations for a community-sponsored border wall project. funding into the personal bank accounts of the project founders.
Evidence presented at a founder’s trial earlier this year showed that Mr. Bannon, a one-time political adviser to former President Donald J. Trump, appeared to be plotting to move the donations through. its own nonprofit to pay another partner who has publicly pledged not to accept a salary. Mr. Bannon himself has never been tried: Mr. Trump pardoned him in January 2021.
But on Thursday, Mr. Bannon, 68, is expected to surrender to New York authorities to face state charges related to his role in the project, called We Build. The wall, according to people familiar with the matter.
The indictment against Mr. Bannon is sealed, and the exact charges are unclear.
Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Alvin L. Bragg, a Manhattan district attorney, declined to comment.
In a statement, Mr Bannon called the charges “fake”, adding: “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
The charges are the latest example of an attempt by Manhattan prosecutors to examine the president’s pardon process in cases where prosecutors believe recipients of federal pardons have also violated them. state law.
Mr. Bannon would be the latest Trump pardon to be indicted since the passage of a 2019 New York law that explicitly authorizes such charges. That law was passed after efforts to prosecute another Trump ally, Paul J. Manafort, were challenged on the grounds of dual danger.
In 2019, Mr. Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance, charged Mr. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman – who was found federally in 2018 – with mortgage fraud. and more than a dozen other state felonies.
Prosecutors described the charges as a way to ensure Manafort was brought to justice, even if he was later pardoned by the president. But a judge brought up the state charges, ruling that they violated the state’s law against dual danger, which prohibits defendants from being tried twice for the same crime.
Mr. Manafort was eventually pardoned by Mr. Trump, and a state appeals court upheld the double-hazard finding.
Steve Bannon’s Legal Troubles
Steve Bannon’s Legal Troubles
Stephen K. Bannon, former President Donald J. Trump’s political adviser and chief strategist, has faced a number of charges since leaving the White House in 2017. Here are some notable cases. attention against him:
In an interview with The New York Times before leaving office last year, Mr Vance said he thought the federal charges against Mr Manafort and Mr Bannon were “a Manhattan crime.” “They were prosecuted by federal prosecutors,” he said. In my view, they have been legally and unjustly pardoned by the president. And that shouldn’t end the story there.”
Although the 2019 law signed into law by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was enacted too late for the case against Manafort, it remained in effect as Manhattan prosecutors charged another Trump ally. , Ken Kurson, despite his pardon in 2021. Mr. Kurson, a close friend of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been charged illegally stalking his ex-wife. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors earlier this year.
Similar legislation could clear the way for new charges against Mr. Bannon.
In August 2020, Mr. Bannon and three other men were arrested by the US attorney’s office in Manhattan and charged with defrauding donors who had contributed more than $25 million to We Build the Wall.
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We Build the Wall has been popularized in Instagram and Twitter posts brag relationship with Mr. Trump. It is also promote by Donald Trump Jr. and assembled an advisory board of right-wing figures. They include David Clarke, the former sheriff of Milwaukee County in Wisconsin; Kris Kobach, former secretary of state for Kansas; and Erik Prince, founder of the private military company Blackwater, now known as Academi.
Few ideas excite Trump supporters like creating a physical barrier at the Mexican border. The sutra of “build the wall” resounded in demonstrations. Many supporters see the structure as the embodiment of Trump’s “America First” policy.
In the end, the Trump administration built about 450 miles of a wall along the border.
The three other people charged with Mr. Bannon are Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran from Miramar Beach, Fla; Andrew Badolato, a venture capitalist from Sarasota, Fla; and Timothy Shea, an entrepreneur from Castle Rock, Colo.
Trump pardoned Bannon in January 2021 before he was put on trial on federal charges. Mr. Kolfage and Mr. Badolato pleaded guilty in April to expose the fraud plot in Federal District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to tax-related charges.
Mr. Shea appeared in court in May. Although Mr. Bannon was not put on trial, his presence was still huge in the proceedings: Evidence suggests he came into contact with others as they discussed media coverage of the war. translated and conspired to transfer money to Mr. Kolfage, who initially said he did not receive any compensation for his role in the wall project.
In a December 2018 text message to Mr Bannon, Mr Badolato wrote that the statement from Mr Kolfage, who lost both legs and part of his right arm while serving in Iraq, “will not be paid a dime”. ” will be ” the most talked about ever in the media.”
“But,” he added, “we have to find an end point to buy him stuff.”
In January 2019, after Article on Buzzfeed News Asked about Mr. Kolfage and We Build the Wall, Mr. Badolato suggested language for a news report claiming that Mr. Kolfage was not taking a salary, Mr. Bannon replied: “COAR can pay him,” a reference. clear for Citizens of the Republic of the United States, a nonprofit organization Mr. Bannon founded in 2017.
Financial records cited by prosecutors show $380,000 was sent from the wall group to Citizens of the Republic of America, sending money to Mr. Kolfage and to Mr. Bannon, respectively.
After Mr. Trump pardoned Mr. Bannon, in January 2021, the Manhattan district attorney’s office, then headed by Mr. Vance, began its own investigation.
The new indictment is first report by the Washington Post.
Federal Judge declare a mistake in the case against Mr Shea in June after jurors reported an impasse, saying a juror spoke during discussions of a “government witch hunt” and denied consider evidence.
Federal prosecutors plan to try Shea again later this year. Mr Badolato and Mr Kolfage will be sentenced in October.
Colin Moynihan contribution report.
