Steve Bannon declared himself guilty on Tuesday of a fraud charge related to deception to donors who contributed money to build a wall on the southern border of the United States, a case that the conservative strategist had described as a “political persecution.”
Bannon, an old ally of Donald Trump, reached a guilt agreement that avoids a jail penalty in the case of the “We Build The Wall” campaign (we build the wall).
He declared himself guilty of a conspiracy position to disappoint and received a three -year conditional sentence, which means that he should avoid future problems with justice to avoid greater sanctions.
Upon leaving the court, Bannon responded to journalists about how he felt: “like a million dollars.”
Later, he spoke with the press and asked the US attorney general, PAM Bondi, to initiate a criminal investigation against the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, and the Prosecutor of the Manhattan district, Alvin Bragg.
Bannon’s agreement arrives a few days after Bondi ordered the Department of Justice to investigate what the President described as the “instrumentalization of the Judiciary for political purposes.”
The trial was scheduled to start on March 4.
Bragg’s office filed charges against Bannon in a state court after Trump granted him an pardon in 2021, which annulled federal charges for the same accusations.
In November, Judge April Newbauer ruled that prosecutors could present certain evidence to the jury, including an email in which, according to them, Bannon expressed concern that the collection of funds was “a scam”.
Bannon had planned an aggressive defense and recently hired a new team of lawyers willing to present the case as a selective and malicious persecution.
In January, their lawyers presented documents asking Judge Newbauer to dismiss the case, arguing that it was an “unconstitutional selective application of the law.” However, the guilt agreement reached on Tuesday left that request without effect.
Bannon, 71, had declared himself not guilty in September 2022 after being accused in a state court of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy.
He was accused of falsely promising donors that all the money raised for the “We Build The Wall” campaign would go to the construction of the wall on the border between the US and Mexico. Actually, prosecutors alleged that the funds were used for Bannon’s personal enrichment and others involved in the project.
The campaign, launched in 2018 after Trump fired Bannon as his main strategist, quickly raised more than 20 million dollars and built a few kilometers of fence on the border. However, he soon faced problems with the International Limit and Water Commission, was the subject of a federal investigation and received criticism from Trump himself, despite the fact that the initiative supposedly supported his immigration policy.
Bragg, a Democratic prosecutor, resumed the case after Trump pardon Bannon at the federal level in the last hours of his mandate in the White House. However, presidential pardons only apply federal crimes, not to state.
During the collection of funds, Bannon came to question the viability of the project, according to prosecutors at a hearing in November.
“Isn’t this a scam? You can’t build the wall with such little money, ”Bannon wrote in an email, according to prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson. Then he added: “Poor Americans should not be spending their money earned with effort on something that cannot be done.”
Two of those involved in the project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, declared themselves guilty of federal charges and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was convicted and also received a jail penalty.
Bannon had already served a four -month sentence in prison last year to disregard a Congress citation in the investigation of the assault on the Capitol of January 6, 2021. He was released in October.
Last week, Bondi created a “working group against instrumentalization” in the Department of Justice to examine cases that, according to her, seem to have been motivated by “political objectives or undue interests”, including the CRIG Criminal Process against Trump.
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