by Madeleine Hubbard
Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon surrendered Thursday to New York authorities, on fraud and money laundering charges in connection to fundraising efforts to complete the southern U.S. border wall.
Bannon and unnamed others in the fundraising effort in New York and elsewhere from about Feb. 4, 2019, to roughly Oct. 10 of that year “knowing that the property involved in one and more financial transactions, to wit, money donated to WeBuildTheWall, Inc. through a crowdfunding website, represented the proceeds of a Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, conducted one and more such financial transactions,” according the an eight-page indictment obtained by CNN.
Bannon, 68, is likely to be released on no cash bail after surrendering his passport, Fox News reported.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office informed Bannon’s attorneys about the indictment last week.
The Trump ally is saying a federal court “did the exact same thing in August 2020 to try to take me out of the election,” referencing his arrest at the time when he was accused of pocketing over $1 million in border wall donations.
The federal government dropped the case regarding the “We Build the Wall” fundraising.
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Madeleine Hubbard joined Just the News as a fast file reporter after working as an editor at Breitbart News.
Photo “Steve Bannon” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
