Steve Bannon’s lawyer says the former Trump White House adviser has struck a deal with prosecutors, and on Tuesday he will plead guilty to fraud charges associated with “We Build The Wall,” a group that once vowed to fulfill Donald Trump’s campaign promise of constructing a border wall between Mexico and the U.S.
Law360 was first to report the anticipated plea deal on Monday.
When Bannon appears in court in Manhattan on Tuesday, his attorney John Carman told the legal news outlet that Bannon will ask the court to forgo any sentence of incarceration.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment.
As HuffPost reported last year, Bannon only just emerged from prison in October after serving four months for refusing to submit to a subpoena request from the House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Investigators sought both testimony and records from Bannon specific to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Bannon faces up to 15 years in prison for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering without pleading guilty.
Prosecutors accused Bannon and a trio of his associates including We Build The Wall group founder Brian Kolfage, Florida financier Andrew Badolato, and their mutual associate, Colorado businessman Tim Shea of bilking investors by promising private donors they would use 100% of their funds to construct the much-anticipated border barrier.
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Instead, prosecutors said Kolfage spent the donor cash on himself, buying a luxury vehicle worth $350,000, as well as for cosmetic surgery and paying down his credit card debt. Kolfage was ordered to repay his victims $17 million and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2023.
Bannon allegedly received at least $1 million in the scheme, and like Kolfage, he was accused of telling investors their money would never be used to pay We Build The Wall executives. Prosecutors said that ended up being a lie because it was Bannon in particular who ensured Kolfage received at least $100,000 in salary.