A New York district attorney is prosecuting Steve Bannon for an alleged crime Donald Trump pardoned him for, in 2021. He is expected to surrender to New York State authorities Thursday, according to a Washington Post report.
The Trump pardon only covers federal charges levied against Bannon. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, aided by NYS Attorney General Latitia James, brought similar state charges. The two Democrats are alleging Bannon defrauded contributors to the $25 million fundraising effort, “We Build the Wall.”
Fox News further reported:
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that the state criminal case would resemble an earlier attempted federal prosecution, in which Bannon was accused of duping donors who gave money to fund a wall on the U.S. southern border.
Bannon, a former Trump senior adviser, was previously federally indicted for fraud in the private fundraising campaign.
Former President Trump pardoned Bannon on the federal charges before he left office in 2021. Bannon pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2020 before his pardon.
The “Soros-backed DA has now decided to pursue phony charges against me 60 days before the Midterm election because WarRoom is the major source of the MAGA grassroots movement,” Bannon said in part in a statement obtained by Fox News.
“The SDNY did the exact same thing in August 2020 to try to take me out of the election,” Bannon said, referring to his arrest months before Trump’s re-election loss.
He added, “This is nothing more than a partisan politicization of the criminal justice system.”
He said he was proud to be a “leading voice” on protecting the border and warned, “They are coming after all of us, not only President Trump and myself. I am never going to stop fighting. In fact, I have not yet begun to fight. They will have to kill me first.”
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