Bannon charged over US$25m border wall scam
This March 13, 2017 file photo shows former senior White House adviser Steve Bannon (left) listening as US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before meeting with his Cabinet in the White House in Washington, DC.
Steve Bannon, an architect of US President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, has been charged with fundraising fraud in a campaign to help Trump build his signature wall on the US-Mexico border, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.
As a top adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign who later served as chief White House strategist, Bannon helped articulate the right-wing populism and fierce opposition to immigration that have helped define Trump’s time in office. Bannon left the White House in August, 2017.
He was among several people charged with wire fraud in an indictment by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through a US$25 million crowd-funding campaign called “We Build the Wall.”
Prosecutors said Bannon received more than US$1 million of that money through a nonprofit organization.
Trump’s signature effort to build a wall along the Mexico border — a key 2016 campaign promise — has struggled amid court challenges, logistical hurdles and opposition from Democrats in Congress.
More than 330,000 supporters have donated to private fundraisers and profiteers who have promised to build the wall on their own, according to a 2019 Reuters investigation. Those efforts likewise have met with limited success.
The indictment comes as Trump trails in opinion polls behind Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the November 3 presidential election.
A spokeswoman for Bannon could not be immediately reached for comment about the indictment.
Donors thought the money would be used to help build a border wall, prosecutors said.
