Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser, charged with money laundering in border wall scheme

Thursday's indictment concerns some of the conduct underlying an August 2020 federal prosecution of Bannon, which also said he diverted close to $1 million for personal expenses. Bannon pleaded not guilty in that case, which ended in January 2021 when Trump pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.

Steve Bannon, the longtime ally and onetime top strategist to former U.S. President Donald Trump, has been indicted on money laundering and conspiracy for allegedly deceiving donors to an effort to help Trump build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon, 68, was charged in an indictment made public on Thursday with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of scheming to defraud.

The case arose from what prosecutors have described as a private $25 million fundraising drive, known as "We Build the Wall," for the former Republican president's signature wall. According to the indictment, Bannon promised donors that all their money would go toward the wall, but concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive's chief executive, who had promised to take no salary.

The chief executive has been identified in court papers as Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who pleaded guilty in April to federal wire fraud conspiracy and tax charges, and is awaiting sentencing. Thursday's indictment concerns some of the conduct underlying an August 2020 federal prosecution of Bannon, which also said he diverted close to $1 million for personal expenses.

Bannon pleaded not guilty in that case, which ended in January 2021 when Trump pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency. Presidential pardons do not prohibit state prosecutions. "Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. "It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable."

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James worked with Bragg's office on the probe. James and Bragg are Democrats who have also been investigating Trump and his businesses. "On the very day the mayor of this city has a delegation down on the border, they're persecuting people here (for trying to) stop them at the border," Bannon said outside Bragg's office, alluding to a recent trip by city officials to Texas.

"This is all about 60 days," Bannon added, apparently referring to the November elections. Bannon is expected to be arraigned at 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT) in New York criminal court in Manhattan. His lawyer David Schoen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PROBES TIED TO TRUMP Thursday's indictment includes several communications from 2019 involving Bannon, Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, who also pleaded guilty in April in the federal case.

Bannon at the time chaired the advisory board of Kolfage's WeBuildTheWall Inc, which was charged on Thursday with the same six counts. The indictment said Bannon texted in January 2019 that there would be " o deals I don't approve; and I pay so what's to worry."

His message was different five months later, according to the indictment, when he told prospective donors at a fundraiser: "Remember, all the money you give goes to building the wall." Lawyers for Kolfage and Badolato did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A fourth defendant in the federal case, Timothy Shea, went to trial, which ended in a mistrial.

The state probe of Bannon began under Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance. Bragg also inherited Vance's probe into Trump's namesake company, the Trump Organization, which along with longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was charged with tax violations in July 2021.

Weisselberg pleaded guilty in August, and the Trump Organization faces a scheduled October trial. Bannon is not the first former Trump ally charged in federal and state court.

In March 2019, Vance brought fraud charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort that were similar to federal charges on which Manafort had been convicted and sentenced to 7-1/2 years in prison. But a New York judge dismissed the state charges nine months later because they amounted to double jeopardy.

Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020. Double jeopardy may not apply to the Bannon case because he never went to trial on the federal charges.

Bannon champions "America First" right-wing populism, including fierce opposition to existing immigration practices, that became hallmarks of Trump's presidency. He now runs the popular podcast "War Room," and often hosts guests who deny that Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)