Well, the man who tried to start up a school in a former Italian monastery to train people how to be Donald Trump cadets is having a few legal issues. Former Trump campaign CEO and adviser to the president, Steve Bannon is back and still wearing three shirts.
The Washington Post columnist
‘[W]ho is as attracted to Trump-fueled chaos as insects are to rotting corpses.’
New York has been having a field day with the ex-president and his associates. Now, the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office has just requested Bannon’s financial records. The subpoena included any records “related to Steve Bannon’s crowd-funding border-wall effort,” according to CNN.
That was a huge red flag and indicated that the AG’s criminal investigation has been heating up. Trump already pardoned Bannon before he left office in January, but that pardon cannot, by law, include state charges. This also occurred before there were concerns about a pardon. Then, the subpoenas went out after the pardon, making Bannon another criminal subject in the Manhattan DA’s office.
After the Supreme Court refused to halt the subpoenas for the second time, the grand jury’s subpoenas went to the financial organizations holding Trump’s financial records, especially Wells Fargo. Bannon used the bank to handle some of the GoFundMe fundraising funds he scammed. The former presidential adviser used the crowdfunding site to generate monies for his We Build the Wall project, allegedly.
At the same time, Vance continued his investigation into Trump and the Trump Organization seeking possible financial crimes. Some possibilities included “insurance fraud and tax fraud, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Trump responded by calling this investigation a “witch hunt and fishing expedition.”
GoFundMe spokesperson said:
‘[The company]Â does not comment on or confirm requests for information from any law enforcement officials.’
The New Jersey attorney general’s spokesperson commented:
‘The Division of Consumer Affairs neither confirms nor denies the existence or status of investigations.’
That AG’s office has also started a civil inquiry into We Build the Wall. The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed We Build the Wall for numerous, varied records.
Thus far, the DA’s Bannon investigation’s allegations of fraud have run parallel to the federal investigation. The US attorney’s Manhattan office announced last summer that federal prosecutors with its office charged Bannon plus three other individuals with defrauding donors in the amount of over 25 million dollars.
These prosecutors claimed that Bannon took more than one million dollars to pay co-conspirators and his own personal costs. The victims of this crime were scammed into believing that all of their donations would go directly toward building the wall.
At the time, Bannon pled “not guilty to the federal charges.” After he was arraigned, the scammer said:
‘This entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall.’
Bannon was pardoned, of course, but the other three co-conspirators were not as lucky. The Federal prosecutors intended to follow through with criminal charges. All three defendants pled not guilty. The prosecutors could challenge Bannon’s pardon, but they have not indicated whether they will do so.
If that turned out to be the case, the district attorney’s office might enter into:
‘[A]n information-sharing agreement to obtain grand jury material collected during the federal investigation. There’s no indication that such an arrangement has been reached.’
Wells Fargo spokesperson and the DA’s office declined to comment. Bannon’s attorney Robert Costello was not available to comment.
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
