Former Trump aide Steve Bannon arrested in ‘Build The Wall' donor fraud case
One of the US President’s former top advisers has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges on the same day a judge rejected Donald Trump’s bid to hide his tax returns.
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US President Donald Trump’s former key adviser Steve Bannon has been charged with fraud over his involvement in a group called “We Build The Wall” which raised money to build a Mexican border wall.
In his first court appearance this morning AEST, Bannon pleaded not guilty to charges he defrauded donors to a $A35 million campaign to build a border wall.
Bannon, 66, was expected to walk free after agreeing to pony up a $A7 million bond following his initial court hearing in the Southern District of New York, where he was arraigned via video conference.
He and three others are accused of ripping off donations to the “We Build the Wall” GoFundMe fundraiser that was launched in December 2018.
Prosecutors allege the former chief strategist for President Trump personally pocketed $1 million in contributions meant for construction of the project, funnelled through a non-profit under his control.
Bannon was Mr Trump’s former key adviser and the idea of a wall to prevent an influx of illegal immigrants was a key aspect of Mr Trump’s campaign.
The online crowd-funding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” which the defendants said would be used on construction but was instead used for their own profit.
According to prosecutors, Bannon misappropriated more than $A1.5 million to pay one of the other defendants and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses.
Mr Trump has responded to the news, saying the indictment of his former White House strategist was “very sad”.
“I think it’s a very sad thing for Mr. Bannon. I think it’s surprising,” Mr Trump said in the Oval Office. “I didn’t like that project. I thought that was a project that was being done for showboating reasons. I don’t know that he was in charge, I didn’t know any of the other people either, but it’s — it’s sad, it’s very sad.”
Former Trump aide Steve Bannon arrested in ‘Build The Wall' donor fraud case
Mr Trump said Bannon’s partnership with co-defendant Brian Kolfage on the “We Build the Wall” effort “was something I very much thought was inappropriate to be doing.”
Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News, was the final chairman of the 2016 Trump campaign and followed Mr Trump into the White House.
The US President fired Bannon in August 2017 after seven months on the job, in the wake of a widely criticised response to racial clashes in Charlottesville, Va.
Mr Trump said, “I haven’t dealt with him at all over years now, literally years.”
In a statement, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Thursday that “President Trump has no involvement in this project and felt it was only being done in order to showboat, and perhaps raise funds.”
CO-ACCUSED WAS WAR VET WHO LIVED ‘LAVISH LIFESTYLE’
One of Bannon’s co-accused is an Iraq war veteran charged with skimming $A500,000 in donations for the US-Mexico border wall who blew the cash on his “lavish lifestyle,” including a boat, jewellery and cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said.
Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage is accused of pocketing $A30,000 a month — and a $A140,000 upfront payment — from the viral GoFundMe fundraiser “We Build the Wall,” which launched in 2018 and raised $A35 million.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Kolfage, 38, also spent the ill-gotten gains on a luxury SUV, golf cart, personal tax payments and credit card debt.
Kolfage is a triple amputee Air Force veteran who was seriously wounded in 2004 when a rocket blew up in Iraq, the Military Times reported.
TRUMP TAX RECORDS CLOSER TO BEING REVEALED
The development came as a US federal judge shot down Donald Trump’s bid to hide his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney — the latest blow to the US President in his legal battle to keep the records from public view.
In the ruling, Judge Victor Marrero dismissed an amended complaint by the president’s legal team, who claimed District Attorney Cy Vance’s subpoena of his tax returns was a fishing expedition and “wildly overbroad.”
According to the New York Post, Justice Marrero wrote that if the subpoena was rejected, it would essentially make the executive branch immune from the judicial process — and leave open the possibility for that loophole to extend to other figures.
“At its core, it amounts to absolute immunity through a back door, an entry point through which not only a President but also potentially other persons and entities, public and private, could effectively gain cover from judicial process,” the judge wrote.
Mr Vance is reportedly investigating Mr Trump for hush-money payments made by his 2016 campaign adviser Michael Cohen to women who claim they had affairs with Mr Trump.
Originally published as Former Trump aide Steve Bannon arrested in ‘Build The Wall' donor fraud case