Pleading Guilty To Felony Fraud, Bannon Escapes Prison, Vows Revenge
Steve Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and ally of white nationalists, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave to his “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.
In exchange for the guilty plea in New York state criminal court, Bannon agreed to a three-year conditional discharge and waived his right to appeal. This means he will not receive any prison time, assuming he does not re-offend.
But he didn’t get off completely scot-free: Bannon will not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York, or any fundraising or nonprofit organization in New York. He will also not be allowed to receive or hold assets for any charitable organizations, NBC News reports.
If he violates any terms of the deal, he could face between 1 ⅓ to 4 years behind bars, according to his plea deal.
“This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement toUSA Today and other outlets, including NBC News.
Bannon was accused of defrauding New Yorkers who donated to “We Build the Wall,” an online fundraiser aimed at fulfilling a pet project of Trump’s during his first term in office. But the indictment alleged that Bannon and others had swindled donors who contributed more than $15 million for the 2019 alleged fundraising project.
While Bannon had said that all of the donations would go toward the construction of a southern border wall, authorities said Bannon redirected the funds elsewhere. In fact, Bannon had secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group’s president, Brian Kolfage, through third-party entities, prosecutors said.
According to ABC News, Kolfage was paid $100,000 upfront and received monthly payments of about $20,000.
Kolfage and another man involved with the project, Andrew Badolato, previously pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2022 and were sentenced to prison.
The “War Room” podcast host was first indicted in 2022 on six charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud. The indictment from Bragg’s office alleged that Bannon orchestrated a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud those who donated to his “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding campaign. The trial was set to begin next month.
Bannon had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years in prison on the most serious charge.
The Trump ally wasn’t exactly repentant for his actions. In fact, after the hearing, he said he planned to call on Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and to investigate Bragg, both of whom have successfully challenged Trump in court.
James, Bannon said, is an “existential threat to the Trump administration.”
This is not Bannon’s first time running afoul of the law. He spent four months in jail in 2024 after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a House select committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021.
So far, Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist for just seven months during his first term, hasn’t been brought into the second administration. He currently spends a lot of time raging about Elon Musk.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos
