XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.atheism

December 31, 1969
Steve Bannon pleads guilty in border wall fraud case, avoids jail time

Steve Bannon, the confidant of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty
Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to "We Build the Wall," an
online fundraiser for Trump's signature project during his first term, in exchange for a sentence without prison time.

"The parties have worked out a plea agreement. Mr. Bannon will plead
guilty to count 5 of the indictment, which is scheme to defraud in the indictment. He will receive a conditional discharge," prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said.

The guilty plea to the felony charge represents Bannon's second criminal conviction after he served prison time for contempt of Congress.
American political strategist Steve Bannon gestures while delivering a
keynote address at Harvard University's second annual Conservative and Republican Student Conference 2025 at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge,
Mass., Feb. 8, 2025.

Bannon showed up to court in a brown barn jacket, his brushed-back gray
hair spilling over the upturned collar. He sat at the defense table
signing papers before Judge April Newbauer affirmed that Bannon now
wanted to plead guilty.

"Is that what you wish to do?" Newbauer asked.

"Yes, your honor," Bannon replied, before acknowledging he acted to
defraud multiple donors.

"Do you now plead guilty to count 5, scheme to defraud?" the court clerk
asked. "Yes," Bannon responded.

The judge imposed the agreed upon sentence of a three-year conditional discharge, during which time Bannon cannot serve as a director of a
charity or fundraise for a nonprofit. He is also barred from using data gathered from "We Build the Wall" donors.

Bannon said after the hearing that he would call on new Attorney General
Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and
investigate Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom brought successful cases against Trump.

"Letitia James is the existential threat to the Trump administration,"
Bannon said.
Steve Bannon, former advisor U.S. President Donald Trump, attends a
hearing to enter a guilty plea in his fraud case stemming from a
fundraising effort to build a border wall, at the New York Criminal
Court, in New York City, Feb. 11, 2025.
Steven Hirsch/via Reuters

Defense attorney Arthur Aidala said he counseled Bannon to plead out
because he did not think Bannon could get a fair shake from jurors in Manhattan.

"This is a spectacular disposition with him," Aidala said, noting the conditional discharge puts no real limitations on Bannon other than
charitable work.

Bragg released a statement after the plea agreement, saying, "This
resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and
New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud. With this felony plea, the
defendant will not be able to serve as an officer, director, or in any fiduciary position, or fundraise for, any charitable associations with
assets in New York State, nor can he use or sell WBTW donors’
information. New York has an important interest in rooting out fraud in
our markets, our corporations, and our charities, and we will continue to
do just that."

"We Build the Wall" promised 100% of donations would fund a wall along
the U.S. southern border, but Bannon redirected money elsewhere.

Bannon, who served as a senior adviser to Trump during his first term,
was indicted in September 2022. He previously pleaded not guilty and the
trial was scheduled to begin on March 4.

Bannon was initially charged in federal court with three co-defendants. However, Trump pardoned Bannon, but not the co-defendants, whose asset forfeitures through prosecution recouped money for defrauded donors.

Bannon defrauded donors to the nonprofit by falsely promising that none
of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of "We Build
the Wall" president Brian Kolfage, while secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to him by laundering it through third-party
entities, prosecutors said.

The campaign represented that "We Build the Wall" would use the money to privately construct the border wall, and prosecutors said a "central
piece of the public messaging in support of this fundraising effort was
that Kolfage was not taking a penny of compensation." Financial records
show Kolfage was paid, according to a secret salary arrangement, an
upfront payment of $100,000 and monthly payments of approximately
$20,000.

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