Tag: investigations
Steve Bannon

Bannon At Risk In New York Fraud Case -- After Stiffing His Lawyer

Steve Bannon is having a bad one. A recent filing by Bannon’s lawyers suggests the former top advisor to Donald Trump may have shot himself in the foot when he decided to not pay the nearly half a million dollars he owed his previous lawyer, Robert Costello, for services rendered.

The law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, where Costello is a partner, sued Bannon in early 2023, winning a judgment against him in July. According to the Daily Beast, Bannon’s lawyers filed a motion on January 11, to block Costello’s firm from pursuing “post-judgment discovery from Mr. Bannon,” by arguing that the requests for banking statements and other information that the law firm had asked for “poses a significant risk of compromising Mr. Bannon’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.”

At issue seems to be the fact that while Bannon is facing an indictment in New York City alleging that he defrauded donors to the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign, these “post-judgement” discovery requests might force Bannon to admit a teensy-weensy bit of fraud.

When Bannon and his crew were originally arrested and federally charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, he got the lucky break that Donald Trump was still in office and pardoned him. By most reports, there was more than enough evidence that money raised by the “We Build the Wall” scam was going to anything but building a wall. It came as no surprise when Brian Kolfage, the fundraiser’s co-founder, pled guilty to his role in siphoning off money from the campaign. Last April, the Associate Press detailed the allegations:

Prosecutors said the scheme was hatched by Kolfage, who served as the public face of the effort as it raised more than $25 million from donors across the country. He repeatedly assured the public he would “not take a penny” from the campaign.

As money poured into the cause, Kolfage and his partner, Shea, turned to Bannon and Badolato for help creating a nonprofit, We Build the Wall, Inc. The four defendants then took steps to funnel the money to themselves for personal gain, prosecutors said.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced new charges against Bannon and WEBUILDTHEWALL, INC., in September 2022. Bannon’s trial has been set for May 28, 2024. But a couple months after the charges, Bannon’s prospects seemed to go in the toilet when he said he needed a new law team, citing “irreconcilable differences” and a communication breakdown.

Two months later, Bannon’s billionaire buddy Guo Wengui was arrested and indicted by federal agents for his own alleged fraud scheme involving his Gettr social media platform. Gettr has financial ties with Bannon and his podcast. In its recent filing, law firm where Costello is a parter has reportedly served restraining notices to entities like Gettr and Bannon’s War Room LLC (which produces his podcast). According to New York-based debt collection attorney Jocelyn Nager:

A restraining notice is a legal document served by a collection attorney or creditor that requires the recipient of the subpoena to hold any monies or other specific types of assets that belong to the judgment debtor. The judgment debtor does not need to be in possession of these assets. In most cases, a third party holds the assets for the judgment debtor.

Judgment creditors can serve restraining notices on financial institutions, like a bank. The bank searches its database and, if they locate an account or safe deposit bank, absent an exemption, the bank must restrain the asset for up to one year.

Earlier this week, Manhattan prosecutors mocked Bannon’s attempt to dismiss his fraud case as “bear[ing] little resemblance to reality.” They wrote, “People's presentation in the instant matter included ample evidence that was more than sufficient to support the grand jury's decision to vote the charges laid out in the indictment.”

It couldn’t be happening to a better guy.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Ivanka Trump with former president Donald Trump at the White House

Why Ivanka's Trial Testimony Was A Disaster For Daddy

The morning session of Ivanka Trump’s testimony in the New York fraud trial ended with a series of objections from her attorney that temporarily had Ivanka sent off to wait in chambers while Judge Arthur Engoron listened to the two sides bicker. Despite this, most of the morning was spent with Ivanka responding to documents, answering questions, and generally being a more cooperative witness than her father and her brothers.

Donald Trump spent his testimony on Monday railing against Engoron, attacking New York Attorney General Letitia James, and sneering about the injustice of it all. But Ivanka smiled at the prosecutors, laughed along with Engoron’s jokes, and appeared to study documents with the scrutiny of a student taking the SAT—even if her response after many of these high-scrutiny sessions was “I don’t recall.”

Much of the morning was spent looking at two projects in which Ivanka was heavily involved: Trump’s Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Florida and the Old Post Office property in Washington, D.C. But it wasn’t the value of either of these properties that was in question. It was how Trump obtained financing. And the answer to that may be the most devastating set of questions and answers of the whole trial.

The key takeaway from Ivanka’s first three hours in court had to do with how Trump secured those infamous loans from Deutsche Bank.

At the start of the day, state attorney Louis Solomon showed Ivanka a series of documents related to her early efforts to secure financing for Doral. While these documents earned their share of “I don’t recall,” they clearly showed that Ivanka had approached one bank after another to find a line of cash to purchase the property. But every one of those banks had turned the project down, usually in the early stages.

Then Jared Kushner put Ivanka in touch with Rosemary Vrablic at Deutsche Bank. Vrablic wasn’t in the commercial real estate area. She worked in the “private wealth management group,” where Deutsche makes special deals for very special people with very special wealth.

After a single meeting, Vrablic offered to not only finance the Doral project but also to do so at a rate that was six percent lower than what Trump would have paid for a commercial loan. However, that deal was contingent on two things: An agreement that Trump kept his net worth above $2.5 billion and that he provide them with accurate annual statements of financial condition.

Trump made that arrangement and was given the money at the prime rate. He not only got Doral but also saved millions in interest.

However, the state has already shown that Trump’s statement of financial condition was fraudulent. Their calculations also put Trump’s net worth well below the $4 billion he claimed at the time. That’s why Trump spent much of his Monday testimony insisting that the bank didn’t care about his statement of financial condition. He was trying to avoid exactly the situation the state proved while questioning Ivanka.

Overall, the Wednesday morning testimony was devastating to Trump. It showed that multiple deals had been utterly dependent on statements he had provided which misrepresented his financial position, and that he had directly benefited from this misrepresentation by getting a lower rate of interest.

Ivanka may be smiling, but she’s not facing any consequences from this trial. None of those with their names still on the lawsuit are going to be happy at the end of the day.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

George Santos

House Ethics Probe Of Santos Nearly Complete As Expulsion Looms

The House Ethics Committee investigating Rep. George Santos suggested Tuesday some form of movement in its investigation into the 23 criminal felony charges and other allegations against the New York freshman Republican will come soon, but a resolution to expel Santos from the House may come first. The committee says its “next course of action” will be announced by November 17. Experts suggest Tuesday’s announcement might delay any possible expulsion vote.

In addition to the 23 federal felonies the committee is investigating, it says its investigation also includes “multiple allegations of criminal and ethical violations that are beyond the scope of the indictments.”

“Specifically, the ISC [Independent Subcommittee] has reviewed allegations that Representative Santos: engaged in unlawful activity with respect to his 2022 congressional campaign; failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the House; violated federal conflict of interest laws in connection with his role in a firm providing fiduciary services; engaged in sexual misconduct towards an individual seeking employment in his congressional office; and/or fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits,” the statement from Chairman Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) and Ranking Member Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) reads.

Additionally, they say the subcommittee “has contacted approximately 40 witnesses, reviewed more than 170,000 pages of documents, and authorized 37 subpoenas. The Committee’s nonpartisan staff and the ISC Members have put countless hours into this investigation, which has been a priority for the investigative team and involved a significant amount of the Committee’s resources.”

“The Committee will announce its next course of action in this matter on or before November 17, 2023.”

That could be the release of a report, or, less likely, an announcement it has dropped the investigation and is recommending no action.

But the resolution to expel Santos may come via a “privileged motion” this week, if Speaker Mike Johnson does not block it. Johnson has said he opposes expelling Santos, citing Republicans’ thin majority. If the motion is filed the House could be required to vote on it within 48 hours.

“They’re clearly looking for a delay in the vote,” saysPunchbowl News’ John Bresnahan.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram writes, “It’s possible this could sidetrack a potential vote related to expelling Santos this week. Some members could want to delay expelling Santos until the Ethics Committee completes its work.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Failed GOP Candidate Goes To Jail Over January 6 Rioting

Failed GOP Candidate Goes To Jail Over January 6 Rioting

A losing 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate in Michigan was sentenced Tuesday to 60 days in prison and hit with a $5,000 fine over his involvement in January 6, The Associated Press (AP) reports.

"I think you misused the platform that you had as a candidate for elected office to minimize, and frankly, to lie about what happened,” United States District Judge Christopher R. Cooper told Ryan Kelley, which NBC News reports is a reference to " "'fundraising appeals' he "made years after the riot where he referred to the 2020 election as stolen and called the Jan. 6 riot an 'FBI set-up.''

Per AP, the failed Republican candidate "spoke at a 'Stop the Steal' rally at the state Capitol in Lansing in November 2020, shortly after the presidential election. Kelley urged others at the rally to 'stand and fight, with the goal of preventing Democrats from stealing the election,' the FBI said."

Kelley later referred to January 6 as a "'false flag' event," according to NBC, telling Cooper he was "misled into believing" ex-President Donald Trump's promise to reveal "receipts" backing his claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

"To this day, those receipts never showed up," Kelley said.

"He shouted into the already riled up crowd; he consistently beckoned the crowd of rioters forward, closer towards the Capitol Building and police; he supported another rioter as he was moving a metal bike rack towards the front of the mob on the Northwest stairs, towards those rioters who were closer to officers; and he took a photograph of human blood by the stairs," prosecutors in the case wrote, NBC reports.

However, AP notes Kelley "doesn’t blame Trump for his conduct on Jan. 6," saying, "He did invite us there, but my actions were my actions."

AP reports ahead of sentencing the failed GOP candidate, Cooper said, "A lot of folks voted for you. A lot of folks followed you."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.