Steve Bannon’s fraud trial could shame Donald Trump’s new administration. (Photo: Getty)
Steve Bannon will cast a shadow over Donald Trump’s new administration when he faces criminal charges in New York City, a stark reminder of Trump’s corrupt first term in office.
The case is set for trial Feb. 25, a month after Trump is sworn in. It’s a long time coming. Bannon was indicted by a grand jury and surrendered to New York state prosecutors more than two years ago.
Ironically, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is prosecuting. He famously won a conviction against Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
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What’s more, Judge Juan Merchan will bang the gavel. He presided over Trump’s case and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s fraud and tax evasion trial.
The outspoken podcaster and former Trump White House chief strategist has pleaded not guilty. “It’s all nonsense. They will never shut me up,” he told reporters after his arraignment in Sept. 2022.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also is involved in the case, said at the time that Bannon’s donors were defrauded out of $15 million.
“Mr. Bannon took advantage of his donors’ political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Mr. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends,” she said.
Timothy Shea, a former high-ranking Trump official was convicted of fraud in the ‘We Build the Wall’ scandal. (Photo: U.S. Justice Dept.)
Bannon is accused of pocketing funds from his “We Build the Wall” non-profit group. It raised money from the public to support Trump’s Mexican border wall construction. (Remember, Mexico refused to pay for it).
Judge Merchan has also ruled that jurors will be allowed to see evidence that Bannon used some of the charity’s funds to cover more than $600,000 in credit card debt owed by another of his not-for-profit groups.
His alleged actions netted two counts of money laundering in the second degree, one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree, scheme to defraud in the first degree and conspiracy in the fifth degree.
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Bannon and three other people associated with “We Build the Wall” were indicted on federal charges in 2020.
Bannon dodged prosecution thanks to a pardon from then-President Trump in one of his last acts before leaving office. Two of his cohorts, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty.
They were sentenced to 51 months and 36 months in prison, respectively.
Defendant Timothy Shea pleaded not guilty, and his first trip to court ended in a mistrial. He was convicted in a second trial in Oct. 2022. He was later sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution.
Shea has an extensive background in Trump’s first administration. He served as acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, from 2020 to 2021, and interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
He also served as a senior counselor to Trump Attorney General William Barr, and as a lobbyist and private corporate lawyer.
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Shea was convicted for soliciting donations using false statements and then stealing donations and laundering proceeds in an attempt to obstruct a federal criminal investigation of the scheme.
Bannon and his cohorts raised more than $25 million from about 100,000 donors in a crowd-funding campaign that began in 2018. The money was intended to privately fund construction of border wall between Mexico and the United States.
Trial in the state case was originally scheduled for Nov. 2023, but Bannon delayed it repeatedly with a flurry of motions.
Bannon was indicted on federal charges in August 2020, but Trump pardoned him before trial as one of his last acts in office following his defeat by President Biden.
Trump will be forced to watch from the sidelines this time, as he enters the second month of his new presidency. Presidents cannot issue pardons for state charges.
The case could result in Bannon’s second prison sentence. He served a four-month federal prison sentence for defying a subpoena from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Kolfage secretly took more than $350,000 in donations for his own personal use. Bannon funneled more than $1 million from “We Build the Wall,” to another unnamed nonprofit organization under his control.
To conceal the illicit flow of money, prosecutors said, the four men also routed payments through a shell company that Mr. Shea controlled, according to The New York Times.
The money they skimmed was allegedly used “for a variety of personal uses including, among other things, expenses travel, hotel, consumer goods and personal credit card debts.”
Kolfage, for example, allegedly used proceeds for “home renovations, payments towards a boat, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments and credit card debt.”