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Tag: manhattan district attorney
Bannon Expected To Surrender Thursday To Face New Indictment

Bannon Expected To Surrender Thursday To Face New Indictment

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) - Steve Bannon, a onetime top strategist for former President Donald Trump and recipient of a presidential pardon, is expected to surrender to New York authorities on Thursday to face a new indictment, a person familiar with the matter said.

Bannon in 2020 was accused in federal court of defrauding donors to a fund to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but that indictment was dismissed after he was pardoned in the final hours of Trump's presidency.

The new indictment is for state criminal charges that may mirror parts of the earlier federal case, though it is unclear because the indictment is still sealed, the person said.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to comment.

Bannon himself issued a statement Tuesday night, after the Washington Post first reported the new indictment.

"This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system," Bannon said in the statement.

He said Manhattan federal prosecutors did the same thing in August 2020 to try to take him out of that year's election.

"It didn't work then; it certainly won't work now," Bannon said.

Bannon is expected to appear in state court in Manhattan on Thursday and then be released pending trial, the person said.

A president can pardon people for federal crimes but not state crimes.

Bannon is not the first Trump ally to be charged in state court. In 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office attempted to pursue former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort on felony charges, including mortgage fraud, that were similar to crimes for which Manafort had been convicted in federal court.

But the charges were dismissed after rulings that they amounted to double jeopardy, or trying someone twice for the same conduct. Manafort was pardoned by Trump in 2020.

Bannon had pleaded not guilty in the federal case, but double jeopardy may not apply because he was never tried.

Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, who were charged alongside Bannon in the federal “We Build the Wall” case, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in April.

Bannon runs a popular hard-right podcast, "War Room," where he regularly promotes pro-Trump information and hosts guests who deny that Trump lost the 2020 election.

In July, Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol, a verdict the panel called a "victory for the rule of law."

Bannon was a main adviser to Trump's 2016 Republican presidential campaign, then served as his chief White House strategist during 2017 before a falling out that was later patched up.

Bannon, 68, championed "America First" right-wing populism and fierce opposition to immigration that became hallmarks of Trump's presidency.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; additional reporting by Luc Cohen; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

New York Prosecutors Intensify Fraud Probe Of Steve Bannon

New York Prosecutors Intensify Fraud Probe Of Steve Bannon

In recent weeks, several people close to Steve Bannon, former President Trump’s erstwhile adviser and strategist, received subpoenas to testify before a New York state grand jury about the ex-adviser’s fundraising efforts for a private border wall, which Trump promised to build and make Mexico pay for, CNN reported on Friday.

The subpoenaed testimony will aid the Manhattan District Attorney’s probe into Bannon, which kicked off shortly after Trump pardoned Bannon, CNN stated, citing unnamed sources privy to the investigation.

The subpoenas underscore the intensification of the Manhattan DA’s investigation, which could lead to criminal charges against Bannon. Trump’s pardon may shield Bannon from federal charges, but it does not affect state prosecutions.

Federal prosecutors accused Bannon and three others — Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea — of fraud and money laundering for allegedly siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from “We Build the Wall,” a crowdfunding campaign for Trump’s border wall that raised $25 million.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Bannon siphoned $1 million from We Build the Wall through a non-profit group he controlled to “secretly pay” Kolfage, a disabled Air Force veteran and face of the crowdfunding initiative. Bannon was also accused of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars for his personal use.

“We’re off the coast of Saint-Tropez in southern France, in the Mediterranean,” Bannon said, sitting beside Kolfage on a yacht in 2019. “We’re on the million-dollar yacht of Brian Kolfage. Brian Kolfage, who took all that money from ‘We Build The Wall.’ No, we’re actually in Sunland Park, New Mexico.”

However, the looming investigation is not the end of Bannon’s legal woes. He was charged with contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee, a congressional panel investigating the January 2021 insurrection. Bannon pleaded not guilty.

News outlets asked Bannon’s lawyer about the subpoenas, and he replied, “I am unaware of these matters.”

According to the 2020 indictment, Kolfage, who promised not to pocket a single cent of the donations, spent his million on home renovations, a boat, and even plastic surgery, among other things.

Trump, who made building a “big, beautiful wall” a central part of his 2016 election campaign, later criticized the effort — which, in 2019, constructed one mile of an 18-foot-high fence on a private property it owned — saying it was initiated “only to make me look bad.”

Trump pardoned Bannon before leaving the White House but not his three co-conspirators. Last month, Kolfage and Badolato pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, and Kolfage also pleaded guilty to tax-related charges. Shea pleaded not guilty to wire-fraud, tax-related, and records-falsifying charges and is now on trial in federal court.

Manhattan DA’s ‘Doubts’ On Trump Case Lead Top Prosecutors To Quit

Manhattan DA’s ‘Doubts’ On Trump Case Lead Top Prosecutors To Quit

Two top prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan District Attorney have “abruptly” resigned, throwing the fraud case against Donald Trump into jeopardy.

The New York Times reports the new Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, “indicated” to the two prosecutors “that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump. "The prosecutors have not presented the grand jury with any new evidence in the last month.

“Without Mr. Bragg’s commitment to move forward, the prosecutors late last month postponed a plan to question at least one witness before the grand jury,” the Times reveals. “They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.”

Prosecutors Leading New York District Attorney's Trump Probe Resign

Prosecutors Leading New York District Attorney's Trump Probe Resign

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two prosecutors who had been leading the Manhattan district attorney's criminal probe into former President Donald Trump and his business practices have resigned, the district attorney's office said on Wednesday.

Special Counsel Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz submitted their resignations after District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in office less than two months, indicated to them that he had doubts about pursuing a case against Trump, the New York Times said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

"We are grateful for their service," said Bragg spokeswoman Danielle Filson, referring to Dunne and Pomerantz, an outside attorney brought in to work on the probe. "The investigation is ongoing."

Dunne and Pomerantz could not immediately be reached for comment.

"“It’s a great day,” said Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for Trump. “In my mind, the case is over."

Fischetti cautioned he had not received official notification of any criminal action against Trump ending.

The resignations come as New York Attorney General Letitia James ramps up her civil probe into Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization.

Last week, a state judge directed the former U.S. president and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to answer questions in that investigation under oath in depositions.

James joined Bragg's criminal probe last May.

Trump, a Republican, has previously denied wrongdoing and said the state and city investigations were politically motivated. James, Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, are all Democrats.

In a statement referring to the criminal probe, James' office said: "The investigation is ongoing and there is a robust team in place that is working on it."

Both probes focus on whether Trump misrepresented the value of his real estate properties.

Investigators are looking into whether values were inflated to obtain bank loans and reduced to lower tax bills.

The criminal probe was begun by longtime District Attorney Vance, who did not seek re-election and was succeeded by Bragg.

It resulted last July in tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization and its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. Both pleaded not guilty and are seeking dismissals.

Donald Trump faces multiple criminal and civil investigations, including in Georgia where a prosecutor won permission to convene a grand jury to look into the then-president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in that state.

Trump is also among those being investigated by a U.S. House of Representatives select committee looking into the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)