Steve Bannon, former advisor U.S. President Donald Trump, attends a listening to to enter a responsible plea in his fraud case stemming from a fundraising effort to construct a border wall, on the New York Felony Court docket, in New York Metropolis, U.S., February 11, 2025.
Steven Hirsch | Through Reuters
Steve Bannon, a former prime White Home aide to President Donald Trump, pleaded responsible Tuesday in New York in reference to the defrauding of a whole lot of 1000’s of Trump supporters who contributed greater than $15 million to a purported effort to construct a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
Bannon, 71, was sentenced to a few years of conditional discharge after pleading responsible, that means he won’t serve any time in jail. The sentence was a part of a plea settlement by Bannon.
Manhattan Supreme Court docket Decide April Newbauer additionally barred the conservative provocateur from serving in an official capability or fundraising for charitable teams and not-for-profit firms that maintain belongings in New York.
Bannon pleaded responsible to 1 depend of first-degree scheme to defraud. He initially was charged in 2022 with six felony counts of cash laundering, conspiracy, and a scheme to defraud.
The responsible plea got here three weeks earlier than the scheduled begin of Bannon’s trial within the case.
It got here a month after Trump was sentenced to unconditional discharge in the identical courtroom for his conviction in his felony hush cash case. Trump was convicted at trial in Could of 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise data associated to a 2016 hush cash cost to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Bannon briefly served as a senior White Home advisor in Trump’s first time period as president, earlier than being fired in April 2017.
Steve Bannon, former advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to members of the media as he departs Manhattan Felony Court docket after a listening to on February 11, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Photos
Bannon initially was charged in federal courtroom with crimes associated to swindling donors to the “We Construct the Wall” group’s crowdfunding effort, which raised greater than $25 million throughout Trump’s first time period.
Bannon and three different males have been accused of pocketing donations, whereas the group managed to construct a paltry three miles of fencing alongside the southern border.
He was awaiting trial in that case in U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan and was free on a $5 million bond when Trump pardoned him on the final night time of his first time period within the White Home on Jan. 19, 2021.
Trump doesn’t have the facility to pardon Bannon for the case in Manhattan Supreme Court docket as a result of that may be a state courtroom. Presidents can solely grant govt clemency in federal circumstances.
Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg Jr., whose workplace prosecuted Bannon within the state case, in an announcement Tuesday mentioned, “This decision achieves our main purpose: to guard New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud.”
“New York has an vital curiosity in rooting out fraud in our markets, our firms, and our charities, and we’ll proceed to just do that,” Bragg mentioned.
Bannon was convicted at trial of a felony contempt of Congress cost in July 2022. That case associated to his willful failure to adjust to subpoenas demanding his testimony and data by the Home choose committee that was investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump.
He was sentenced to 4 months in jail in that case however remained free for almost two years whereas pursuing appeals. After the U.S. Supreme Court docket rejected a request that it hear his attraction, Bannon reported to jail in July to serve his sentence.
Three different males who have been initially charged with Bannon within the federal case have been convicted in that case and sentenced to jail.
One in every of them, Timothy Shea, was convicted at trial in October 2022 and later sentenced to 5 years and three months in jail. The 2 different defendants, Brian Kolfagfe and Andrew Badolato, pleaded responsible and have been sentenced to 4 years and three months in jail, and three years in jail, respectively.