Steve Bannon pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a fraud charge related to duping donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the US southern border—a case the conservative strategist has decried as a "political persecution." Bannon, a longtime ally of President Trump, reached a plea agreement that spares him from jail time in the "We Build the Wall" scheme as long as he stays out of trouble, reports the AP. Asked how he was feeling as he left the courtroom, Bannon said, "Like a million bucks." The deal comes just days after US Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to investigate what the president called the "weaponization of prosecutorial power."
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office charged Bannon in state court after a Trump pardon in 2021 wiped away federal charges on the same allegations. In November, Judge April Newbauer ruled prosecutors could show jurors certain evidence, including an email they say shows Bannon was concerned the fundraising effort was "a scam." Bannon had been planning an aggressive defense strategy and recently hired a new team of attack-dog lawyers who sought to portray the case to jurors as a selective and malicious prosecution. In January, Bannon's lawyers filed papers asking Newbauer to throw out the case, calling it an "unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law." The judge had been expected to rule on that on Tuesday, before Bannon's plea deal made the request moot.
Bannon, 71, pleaded not guilty in September 2022 to a state court indictment charging him with money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy. He was accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the "We Build the Wall" campaign would go toward building a wall along the US-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors alleged the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project. The campaign, launched in 2018 after Trump fired Bannon as his chief strategist, quickly raised more than $20 million and privately built a few miles of fencing along the border. It soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation, and drew criticism from Trump, whose policy the charity was founded to support.
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