Steve Bannon, three others charged with fraud in border wall fundraising campaign
New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged President Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.
Another Trumpster accused of criminal misconduct.
Bye, bye Bannon
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
New York federal prosecutors on Thursday charged President Donald Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon and three others with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.
Bannon, 66, was arrested on a boat Thursday off the Eastern coast of Connecticut according to a law enforcement official. He will make his initial court appearance in New York later Thursday, according to the US attorney's office. Bill Burck, an attorney for Bannon, declined to comment.
The four men are indicted for allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to an online crowdfunding campaign called We Build the Wall for personal expenses, among other things. Bannon and another defendant, Brian Kolfage, promised donors that the campaign, which ultimately raised more than $25 million, was "a volunteer organization" and that "100% of the funds raised...will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose," according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.
But instead, according to prosecutors, Bannon, through a non-profit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to "secretly" pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon's personal expenses. And Kolfage, according to the charges, used more than $350,000 of the donations for his personal use.
Bannon, Kolfage and the other two defendants, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea, are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
"As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," Acting Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. "While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle."
The indictment describes a slight-of-hand perpetrated by the defendants on donors to the We Build the Wall group. Within days of launching the group, Kolfage, along with Bannon and Badolato, made a "secret agreement" in which Kolfage would be paid "$100k upfront [and] then 20 [per] month," according to the indictment. To disguise the transfer of the money to Kolfage, Bannon agreed to pass the payments through a non-profit he controlled, according to prosecutors, and in February 2019, Bannon and Badolato directed the non-profit to pay Kolfage $100,000 from We Build the Wall.
In February, CNN reported that We Build the Wall had communicated with the administration on plans to build a wall along the southern border and donate it to the US government.
Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, declined to comment on the indictment Thursday morning.
A law enforcement official says officials at Justice Department headquarters were briefed in advance of the indictment of Bannon and others, but didn't say when.
Justice officials have said Attorney General William Barr's June ouster of Geoffrey Berman as Manhattan US Attorney was not related to the handling of any particular case.
Bannon's history with Trump
Bannon was once an influential voice inside the White House as Trump's chief strategist, until he was ousted by the President in August 2017.
He had helped run Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, alongside now-White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, and was credited as a driving force behind Trump's populist appeal, nationalist ideology and controversial policies.
Trump fired Bannon, furious from an interview in which Bannon was quoted contradicting Trump on North Korea and claiming he had authority to make personnel changes at the State Department.
He and the President had a falling-out in 2018 after Bannon was quoted calling an infamous 2016 meeting of a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner "treasonous."
Before joining Trump's campaign, Bannon was the former executive chairman of Breitbart, a right-wing news site that traffics in incendiary headlines, many of them outwardly racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic. Bannon returned to Breitbart after leaving the White House, but left again in 2018.
We Build the Wall controversy
We Build the Wall Inc., a group founded by Air Force veteran Kolfage, gained national attention after raising millions of dollars in a GoFundMe campaign, and launching two private wall projects in New Mexico and Texas. Those projects were constructed on private land -- a strategy that largely shielded them from government intervention.
Kolfage has come under scrutiny for his inflammatory rhetoric and promises. In the past, he's been accused by some of his donors as overpromising and underdelivering. Other allegations against him include being clandestine in his operations and unwilling to disclose certain logistics. He often uses his Twitter account to spar with or confront liberal critics. In the past, Kolfage has defended himself against criticism.
He previously told CNN that his group is a "game-changer for border security" and is "trying to make America safer."
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The story of the criminal Trump administration is unparalleled in American history.
What's apparently almost as unparalleled is the blatant gullibility of Trumps base. Trump and those around him rely on his base not questioning their actions, being blindly loyal and rabidly vocal. I'd love to say I was surprised, but this was far too predictable and Bannon is just further proof of how corrupt Trump and those around him are.
NY prosecutors....... Draining the Trump Swamp, one creature at a time.
The tRump criminal enterprise administration.
this had rwnj scam written all over it from the get go...
So this is a version of ''draining the swamp''. The swamp is the size of the Pacific Ocean.
What has Bannon's status over at Breitbart been of late?
He "stepped down" after that tell all book came out in 2018 where he's alleged to have said bad things about the short fingered vulgarian.
Yes but I believe that he still lived in their headquarters for long afterward.
"So this is a version of ''draining the swamp''. The swamp is the size of the Pacific Ocean."
It's a really big wet body of water, really big, really wet.
Another one of orange conman's best and brightest crook
If Trump pardons this fool, every single person who donated should be totally pissed.
He will..... just to keep him quiet.
The hits just keep on coming
But they are the greatest.
There's a lot of shit hitting the fan, every where you turn.
Oh, yeah...I see you seeded an article about trmp will have to disclose his tax returns
They see "the deplorables" as sheep to be sheared. What do the deplorables say?
Probably the same as the people who gave money to the SPLC.
Or the NRA.
Good. Now he can look like he never takes a shower while wearing a prison uniform.
What gets me is 25 mil? There are a lot of stupid people around that would give up their hard earned money to 'build a wall'.
Of all the things one could give to. A person that needs medical help, disaster relief (look at Iowa right now), hell even a local pet shelter. Who in their right mind would think, oh no, I have to give to a donald crony and help build a wall.
Dumbasses.
Bannon has always looked like a walking, talking case of genital herpes. . .
Thankfully, none of this comes close to touching the president, or affecting his landslide reelection
Hold that thought Greg......
Unfortunately, that can only happen if you donate generously to their campaign Greg. Better get right on that.
Oh, there is a whole lot more to this story and some interesting groups and names pop up.
Supposedly one even bought a car and payments toward a boat.
Some hungry hungry hippos.
Bannon was arrested on a 150 yacht owned by a Chinese billionaire. PERFECT!!!
Haha. You couldn't make this stuff up.
I think I'm going to watch SNL Saturday night
The grim reaper lounging on a yacht and then cuffed.... Must see TV.
Hopefully I can stay awake....
That millionaire will now say Steve who when asked.
Thanks to AG Barr for bringing this case to trial.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in awhile.
I believe that it's Audry Strauss that should be commended of the southern district of NY and the USPS who actually arrested Bannon.
Oh, the irony.
It wouldn't be that you can't admit the smearing of Barr was another lie?
Smearing of Barr? He deserves every word of condemnation he has received.
Whatever smearing has been done to Barr was fully deserved. Barr is a partisan pig, just another minion of trump's.
Barr’s doj is non partisan, a refreshing change from the holder/lynch era.
bullshit. barr is trump's personal rent-boy.
I guess tRumps' consigliere has to appear impartial at some point.
Warfighter' at a boat parade in Destin, Florida over July 4th weekend
(Instagram vai Twitter/@EvanCHill)
Brian Kolfage, the wounded Iraq veteran indicted for fraud on Thursday, allegedly used fundraising efforts surrounding a privately-built wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to fund a "lavish lifestyle" which included the purchase of a boat he named 'Warfighter,' according to prosecutors.
Supporting Trump, you can't make this shit up.
O.M.G. He should be stripped of all his medals! He used his wounded veteran status to drum up cash for the Go Fund Me site for that wall
That's the "yacht" ? Hahahahahahahahahahah
That's not the yacht Bannon was arrested on.
Even better:
"Liberal coastal elites" HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Ya gotta love it there is one member that will avoid this article like the plague.
Lol, okay but that is the first "yacht" image I saw when the story broke on many sites this morning.
He hasn't made an appearance yet...
That yacht has some connection to the story, as Kavika showed us at 14, so I guess that's what they used.
Barr made bail. I hope they at least confiscated his passport.
Let's hope your post is prophetic.
Wait!!
What??
Are you saying that Trump's former "Chief Strategist" is a crook?
Unthinkable!