White nationalist can't catch a break. |
The former advisor to Washed Up 45 and former Breitbart CEO is to turn himself in to New York Authorities for allegedly fundraising that stolen money for We Build The Wall.
Sloppy Bannon is expected to turn himself in after New York state prosecutors accuse him Karen Shea and Karen Kolfage of stealing from people who donated to their pathetic border wall scam.
Bannon, 68, plans to turn himself in on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
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.
That federal case ended abruptly, before trial, when Washed Up 45 pardoned Bannon.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment late Tuesday.
Republicans love scapegoating. Building border walls won't stop migrants. |
In a statement, Bannon said District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has now decided to pursue phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election,” accusing the Democratic prosecutor of targeting him because he and his radio show are popular among Washed Up 45’s Republican supporters.
“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 the former president’s re-election loss.
Federal agents pulled Bannon from a luxury yacht off the Connecticut coast and arrested him on charges he pocketed more than $1 million in wall donations.
“It didn’t work then, it certainly won’t work now,” the former White House strategist said. “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
Bannon, who had pleaded not guilty, was dropped from the federal case when the former president pardoned him on his last day in office in January 2021.
Two other men involved in the “We Build the Wall” project pleaded guilty in April. They had been scheduled to be sentenced this week, but that was recently postponed to December. A third defendant’s trial ended in a mistrial in June after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Veteran and trophy wife scammed. |
In 2019, then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. brought state mortgage fraud charges against Washed Up 45’s former campaign chairman Karen Manafort in what was widely seen as an attempt to hedge against a possible pardon.
But a judge threw the case out on double jeopardy grounds, finding that it was too similar to a federal case that resulted in Manafort’s conviction. (Manafort was later pardoned by the former president).
While Manafort’s New York case was pending, New York eased its double jeopardy protections, ensuring that state-level prosecutors could pursue charges against anyone granted a presidential pardon for similar federal crimes.
Bannon’s case differs because he was dropped from the federal case in its early stages. In most cases, double jeopardy is only a factor when a person has been convicted or acquitted of a crime.
In another case not covered by Washed Up 45’s pardon, Bannon was convicted in July on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October and faces up to two years in federal prison.
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