Steve Bannon, the confidante of President Donald Trump, pleaded responsible Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Construct the Wall,” an internet fundraiser for Trump’s signature undertaking throughout his first time period, in alternate for a sentence with out jail time.
“The events have labored out a plea settlement. Mr. Bannon will plead responsible to rely 5 of the indictment, which is scheme to defraud within the indictment. He’ll obtain a conditional discharge,” prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson stated.
The responsible plea to the felony cost represents Bannon’s second legal conviction after he served jail time for contempt of Congress.
American political strategist Steve Bannon gestures whereas delivering a keynote handle at Harvard College’s second annual Conservative and Republican Scholar Convention 2025 at The Charles Lodge in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 8, 2025.
Sophie Park/Reuters
Bannon confirmed as much as court docket in a brown barn jacket, his brushed-back grey hair spilling over the upturned collar. He sat on the protection desk signing papers earlier than Decide April Newbauer affirmed that Bannon now needed to plead responsible.
“Is that what you want to do?” Newbauer requested.
“Sure, your honor,” Bannon replied, earlier than acknowledging he acted to defraud a number of donors.
“Do you now plead responsible to rely 5, scheme to defraud?” the court docket clerk requested. “Sure,” Bannon responded.
The decide imposed the agreed upon sentence of a three-year conditional discharge, throughout which era Bannon can not function a director of a charity or fundraise for a nonprofit. He’s additionally barred from utilizing information gathered from “We Construct the Wall” donors.
Bannon stated after the listening to that he would name on new Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James and examine Manhattan district lawyer Alvin Bragg, each of whom introduced profitable circumstances towards Trump.
“Letitia James is the existential menace to the Trump administration,” Bannon stated.
Steve Bannon, former adviser President Donald Trump, arrives to attend a pretrial convention listening to in his fraud case stemming from a fundraising effort to construct a border wall, on the New York Prison Court docket, in New York Metropolis, Jan. 22, 2025.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters, FILE
Protection lawyer Arthur Aidala stated he recommended Bannon to plead out as a result of he didn’t assume Bannon may get a good shake from jurors in Manhattan.
“This can be a spectacular disposition with him,” Aidala stated, noting the conditional discharge places no actual limitations on Bannon aside from charitable work.
“We Construct the Wall” promised 100% of donations would fund a wall alongside the U.S. southern border, however Bannon redirected cash elsewhere.
Bannon, who served as a senior adviser to Trump throughout his first time period, was indicted in September 2022. He beforehand pleaded not responsible and the trial was scheduled to start on March 4.
Bannon was initially charged in federal court docket with three co-defendants. Nonetheless, Trump pardoned Bannon, however not the co-defendants, whose asset forfeitures via prosecution recouped cash for defrauded donors.
Bannon defrauded donors to the nonprofit by falsely promising that not one of the cash they donated can be used to pay the wage of “We Construct the Wall” president Brian Kolfage, whereas secretly funneling tons of of hundreds of {dollars} to him by laundering it via third-party entities, prosecutors stated.
The marketing campaign represented that “We Construct the Wall” would use the cash to privately assemble the border wall, and prosecutors stated a “central piece of the general public messaging in assist of this fundraising effort was that Kolfage was not taking a penny of compensation.” Monetary information present Kolfage was paid, based on a secret wage association, an upfront cost of $100,000 and month-to-month funds of roughly $20,000.
