Ex-Trump aide Steve Bannon charged with money laundering and conspiracy

New York — Steve Bannon, a former top strategist to former US 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 US-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.

Prosecutors accused Bannon of defrauding donors who contributed more than $15m to a private 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 towards the wall, but concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive’s CEO, who had promised to take no salary.

The CEO 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.

“It is a crime to profit off the backs of donors by making false pretences,” Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said at a joint press conference with New York attorney-general Letitia James, who worked with him on the probe.

Thursday’s indictment concerns some of the conduct underlying an August 2020 federal prosecution of Bannon, Kolfage and two other men.

Bannon pleaded not guilty in that case, which ended abruptly in January 2021 when Trump pardoned him in the final hours of his presidency.

Presidential pardons do not prohibit state prosecutions.

“In New York, we have zero tolerance for corruption,” James said. “There cannot be one set of rules for everyday Americans and another set of rules for the wealthy and powerful.”

James and Bragg, both Democrats, 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 and imputing a political motive to the timing of the indictment.

He could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of money laundering, the most serious charge.

David Schoen, a lawyer for Bannon, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump probes

Thursday’s indictment includes several communications from 2019 involving Bannon, Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, who also pleaded guilty in April in the federal case, where prosecutors estimated a $25m size for the fundraising drive.

The indictment said Bannon texted in January 2019 that there would be “0 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 trial of the fourth defendant in the federal case, Timothy Shea, 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 CFO 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 Trump ally charged in federal and state court.

In March 2019, Vance brought fraud charges against former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort that were similar to federal charges on which Manafort had been convicted and sentenced to seven-and-a-half 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 called War Room, and often hosts guests who deny that Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Reuters