Steve Bannon was already convicted and pardoned by Donald Trump on federal charges over his "Build the Wall" fundraising fraud, but also faces state charges that a president can't get rid of. He heads to court on December 9 for a weeklong trial on claims he bilked MAGA with false promises to build a wall.
Prosecutors wanted to try him sooner, but he's in prison already on a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena and the judge decided it should wait until he's done his time.
Another participant in the scam, Brian Kolfage, was sentenced to 51 months in prison last year: "The Manhattan district attorney's office has said Bannon defrauded donors to the nonprofit We Build the Wall by falsely promising that none of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of the organization's president, Brian Kolfage, while secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to him by laundering it through third-party entities."
Bannon's contempt conviction, dating to 2022, was over his refusal to testify about his role in the Jan 6. riots on Capitol Hill and Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As dishonest as he has proven himself, if you want a clear judgment on what MAGA is good for, Bannon's was the best.
