|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By: Serach Nissim
A Manhattan judge pushed back the trial date for the trial for Stephen K. Bannon, who faces charges that he schemed to defraud people who donated money to build the southern border wall. As reported by the NY Times, on Monday morning, during a hearing, judge April A. Newbauer of State Supreme Court, delayed the trial from December to Feb. 25. “We’re not changing it again,” Judge Newbauer told both sides, regarding the trial date. The changed date will allow the proceedings to avoid holiday disruptions, but will also place the trial well after President Trump is inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.
Bannon, 70, is a political strategist and media executive who had been executive chairman of Breitbart News. He had been a supporter of President Donald J. Trump in his first term, taking an active role in the 2016 presidential campaign, and had served as senior counselor to the President in 2017. Bannon previously faced similar federal charges and received a pardon from Mr. Trump. In late 2022, Bannon was accused of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud in connection to a group named We Build the Wall, which raised over $25 million from donors across the country, for promising to help build a barrier between the U.S. and Mexico.
The group had promised that donations would be used only for the construction of the barrier, which was a cause championed by many Republicans and President Trump. We Build the Wall’s founder and public face, Brian Kolfage, 42, a decorated Air Force veteran who lost both legs and part of his right arm in Iraq, wrote on the group’s website, “I will personally not take a penny of compensation from these donations.” Mr. Bannon had similarly promised at a fund-raising event in 2019, “Remember, all the money you give goes to building the wall,” per the indictment.
Prosecutors say those promises were false. Per the NY Times, the indictment charges Mr. Bannon, who served as chairman of the group’s advisory board, with participating in a conspiracy to secretly funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to Mr. Kolfage through third parties, including a nonprofit organization controlled by Mr. Bannon.
In 2020, Mr. Bannon had faced similar charges, being arrested and accused by federal prosecutors of defrauding donors to We Build the Wall and using more than $1 million of the donations to pay for personal expenses. At the end of Mr. Trump’s first term of presidency, he had pardoned Mr. Bannon, who never went to trial for those charges. Mr. Kolfage was not pardoned, he was sentenced last year by a federal judge to four years and three months in prison. Because Federal pardons do not cover state offenses, in September 2022 Bannon was charged for the same counts in a New York state court. Charges include money laundering, scheming to defraud and conspiracy. Bannon has pleaded not guilty. Bannon has previously said that he is being targeted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, for political reasons. If found guilty and convicted on all counts.
