By Jack Queen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon pleaded guilty in New York state court on Tuesday to a fraud charge related to his fundraising campaign for the U.S. president’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
At a hearing, Bannon, 71, pleaded guilty to one count for scheme to defraud. He was immediately sentenced to three years of conditional release, avoiding jail time.
Bannon was charged with money laundering and conspiracy, and accused of deceiving donors in 2019 who contributed more than $15 million to a private fundraising drive, known as “We Build the Wall,” during Trump’s first term in the White House.
As part of his sentence, Bannon is barred from serving on a New York nonprofit for three years and prohibited from using or selling donor data obtained as part of the scheme.
Bannon had previously pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to stand trial in March, under an indictment brought by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Bannon did not address the court aside from entering the plea and confirming he understood his rights.
Addressing reporters outside the courthouse, Bannon did not mention his own case but attacked Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, saying they were “existential threats” to the Trump administration.
“I’m calling on right now the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to begin an immediate criminal investigation into Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, all of what they did to President Trump,” Bannon said.
James was not involved in Bannon’s case but previously sued Trump for civil fraud and won a nearly half-billion dollar judgment against him. Trump has denied wrongdoing and is appealing.
Construction of a border wall was a key element of Trump’s immigration policies during his first presidency, supported by his fellow Republicans but opposed by immigrant advocacy groups.
The indictment said Bannon promised donors that all their money would go toward building Trump’s wall, but concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive’s chief executive Brian Kolfage, a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran who had promised to take no salary.
Kolfage pleaded guilty in April 2022 to federal fraud and tax charges, and is serving a 4-1/4-year prison sentence.
Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his second term as president.
Bannon was an adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and served as Trump’s chief White House strategist in 2017 before they had a falling out, which was later patched up. Bannon also has played an instrumental role in right-wing media.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought similar charges against Bannon in 2020, but Trump pardoned him in his final hours in the White House the next year.
Trump cannot pardon Bannon on Bragg’s charges because they were brought at the state level.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen; Writing by David Bario; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Gerry Doyle and Bill Berkrot)
