Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon charged in border wall scheme
Published:Thursday | August 20, 2020 | 12:46 PM
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, and three associates were arrested Thursday on charges they ripped off donors to an online fundraising effort to build a privately funded southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime.
The organisers of the “We Build The Wall” group portrayed themselves as eager to help the president build a “big beautiful” barrier along the US-Mexico border, as he had promised during the 2016 campaign.
They raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors, using their ties to Trump to build legitimacy, and pledged that 100% of the money would be used for the project.
But according to the criminal charges unsealed Thursday, little of the money actually went to the wall.
Instead, it was used to line the pockets of group members, including Bannon, who served in Trump’s White House and worked for his campaign.
He allegedly took over $1 million, using some to secretly pay co-defendant Brian Kolfage, the founder of the project, and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
Bannon, his spokeswoman, and an attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday, nor did Kolfage.
Other prominent members of the group included former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, its general counsel; Erik Prince, founder of the controversial security firm Blackwater; former Republican representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado; and former major league baseball pitcher Curtis Schilling. They were not named in the indictment.
The arrests make Bannon the latest in a list of former Trump associates who have been prosecuted, including his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Bannon was taken into custody on a 150-foot yacht off the coast of Connecticut by the postal inspection service, authorities said.
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