by Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Steve Bannon, once former US President Donald Trump’s top strategist, has been indicted in New York on six felony charges related to Trump’s effort to build a wall along the US border.
In an indictment made public on Thursday, Bannon was charged with two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of fraud.
Bannon, 68, has been accused of defrauding donors at a private $25 million fundraising event known as “We’re Building the Wall” to help build the wall defended by Trump along the US-Mexico border.
The charges come more than a year and a half after Trump pardoned Bannon in the final hours of his presidency by clearing him of a federal fraud case.
According to the indictment, Bannon concealed receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from donors, despite the movement’s head promising not to receive salaries.
The chief is identified in court documents as Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who pleaded guilty to tax and electronic fraud conspiracy charges in April and awaits his sentence.
“Stephen Bannon acted as the architect of a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. Said. “It is a crime to make a profit by lying to donors.”
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James worked with Bragg’s office on the investigation. James and Bragg are Democrats.
“It’s an irony,” Bannon said outside Bragg’s office to face the charges.
“The day this city’s mayor has a delegation at the border, they are harassing people here (for trying to stop them at the border),” Bannon added.
Bannon is indicted less than two months after he was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena by a House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)
source: Noticias
