Steve Bannon Charged with Money Laundering, Conspiracy in Border-Wall Scam
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Steve Bannon, who served as an adviser to then-president Trump, surrendered to the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday morning and was charged with money laundering and conspiracy related to his effort to raise private funds to build a wall on the southern border.
He plans to plead not guilty in court on Thursday, his attorney said.
Bannon was pardoned by President Donald Trump on the latter’s last day in office in 2021 for federal charges pertaining to the same matter. He is alleged to have used some of the $25 million he raised for the wall to cover his personal expenses.
The former Breitbart chairman and chief executive of the 2016 Trump campaign, Bannon hosts the popular “War Room” podcast, and has called the charges against him “phony.”
“This an irony, on the very day the mayor of this city has a delegation down on the border, they are persecuting people here, that try to stop them at the border,” Bannon told reporters on Thursday. “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.”
Bannon left the Trump White House after less than a year, and was later given the nickname “Sloppy Steve” by the former president, who eventually reconciled with Bannon.
