Steve Bannon to Face Indictment in New York
Steve Bannon, a onetime top strategist to former U.S. President Donald Trump and an architect of his successful 2016 White House run, is expected to surrender on Thursday to New York authorities to face “state charges” in a new indictment.
The charges come more than 1-1/2 years after Trump pardoned Bannon in the final hours of his presidency, excusing Bannon from a federal fraud case.
Bannon, 68, and three other men had been charged in August 2020 with defrauding donors in a private $25 million fundraising drive, known as “We Build the Wall,” to help build Trump’s signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Bannon pleaded “not guilty to the federal indictment, including to charges he diverted close to $1 million for personal expenses.” But his indictment was dismissed after Trump pardoned him.
Bannon’s new indictment is being issued by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
The case may mirror parts of the federal case concerning the wall, though, it is unclear because the indictment has ‘not been unsealed’ yet, a person familiar with the matter said.
“Presidential pardons cover federal charges and do not prohibit state prosecutions.”
Bannon is expected to appear in a New York state court in Manhattan on Thursday.
Contempt of Congress
He is being charged less than two months after being convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from a House of Representatives committee probing the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a statement on Tuesday night, Bannon called the New York case “nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
The state probe of Bannon began under Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus Vance.
Bragg also inherited Vance’s probe into Trump’s namesake company, the Trump Organization, which along with longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg was charged with ‘tax violations’ in July 2021.
Weisselberg ‘pleaded guilty’ in August to a variety of tax charges, and the Trump Organization faces a trial scheduled to start in October.
Bannon would not be the first former Trump ally charged in both federal and state court.
Reuters /Shakirat Sadiq
