CNN
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Steve Bannon is scheduled to plead not guilty on Thursday. indicted for New York state crimes Attorney Robert Costello told CNN in connection with a fundraising effort to finance the construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States.
former donald trump The aide will surrender to face the charges Thursday morning, people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The state charges returned in the indictment were based on the same conduct Bannon was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2020, including the border wall border wall, which Bannon and three others raised more than $25 million. It claims that the effort defrauded donors.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office opened a criminal investigation into Bannon’s “We Build the Wall” crowd fundraiser early last year after then-President Trump. forgive bannon on federal fraud charges related to the same alleged scheme.
A presidential pardon does not apply to state investigations.
As CNN previously reported, Bannon federally prosecuted for misappropriating more than $1 million To pay an alleged co-conspirator and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. Prosecutors alleged that donors, including some in New York, were misrepresented that all donated money would be used for construction work.
In recent months, several people close to Bannon have been brought before a state grand jury.
Manhattan prosecutors subpoenaed bank records and have been working quietly over the past year as they probe Trump and his real estate business, a source familiar with the matter previously told CNN. , the district attorney’s office has stayed a decision to indict Bannon until federal prosecutors have closed the case against his three co-defendants who were not pardoned.
Bannon issued a statement late Tuesday, calling the indictment “a false accusation” and, in part, “no more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
“I am proud to be in a leadership position to protect our borders and build a wall that protects our country from drugs and violent criminals,” he said in a statement. They’re aiming at all of us and myself.I’m never going to stop fighting.In fact, I haven’t started yet.They’ll have to kill me first.”
A federal jury in July found Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. According to federal law, he is due to be sentenced in October and faces a minimum sentence of 30 days in prison for him.
Source: www.cnn.com
