![]() ![]() He faces up to a year in jail and $100,000 in fines.īannon's case is not the first brought by the New York district attorney's office involving the former president's allies. Shea is scheduled to be retried in October.īannon is also awaiting sentencing after he was convicted of misdemeanor contempt of Congress for snubbing subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. A trial for the third co-defendant, Timothy Shea, ended in a mistrial in June, when the jury deadlocked and could not reach a verdict. Two of Bannon's co-defendants in the federal case, Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty in April and are scheduled to be sentenced in December. Presidential pardons only apply to federal cases, meaning New York is not prohibited from pursuing similar charges. NBC News reported in February 2021 that the district attorney’s office had opened an investigation into Bannon's involvement in the alleged scam a month after Trump pardoned him. He pleaded not guilty and was later pardoned by then-President Donald Trump. ![]() In a statement to NBC News on Tuesday, Bannon said, “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”īannon was hit with charges related to the same scheme by federal prosecutors in August 2020. State Attorney General Letitia James, whose office teamed up with the district attorney in the probe, said that Bannon "took advantage of his donors’ political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated" and that he "lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends." He said later at a news conference that if he is convicted, Bannon faces a maximum of five to 15 years in prison. “It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable,” Bragg said. In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Bannon "acted as the architect of a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of donors across the country - including hundreds of Manhattan residents." Prosecutors allege that Bannon was well aware that the group was publicizing that Kolfage was telling donors "I’m taking zero dollars of a salary, no compensation" and that Bannon had echoed the claims himself. Some of the money was routed to him by Bannon, who had money from the campaign transferred to a nonprofit group under Bannon's control and then used the cash to pay Kolfage $140,000, the indictment alleges. The group's president, Brian Kolfage, who is not named in the indictment, pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme, the filing alleges. Bannon was chair of the "advisory board" for the group, which prosecutors say duped thousands of donors by maintaining that all the money raised would go to build a wall along the southern border and not to the people running the effort. The six-count indictment also names the group WeBuildTheWall.Inc, which it says worked with Bannon on the scheme in 2019. He intends to fight these charges all the way,” Bannon's attorney David Schoen told the judge. ![]()
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