Steve Bannon pleads guilty in border wall fraud case, avoids jail time (original) (raw)

Steve Bannon, the confidant of President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to "We Build the Wall," an online fundraiser for Trump's signature project during his first term, in exchange for a sentence without prison time.

"The parties have worked out a plea agreement. Mr. Bannon will plead guilty to count 5 of the indictment, which is scheme to defraud in the indictment. He will receive a conditional discharge," prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said.

The guilty plea to the felony charge represents Bannon's second criminal conviction after he served prison time for contempt of Congress.

PHOTO: American political strategist Steve Bannon gestures while delivering a keynote address at Harvard University's second annual Conservative and Republican Student Conference 2025 at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 8, 2025. (Sophie Park/Reuters)

Bannon showed up to court in a brown barn jacket, his brushed-back gray hair spilling over the upturned collar. He sat at the defense table signing papers before Judge April Newbauer affirmed that Bannon now wanted to plead guilty.

"Is that what you wish to do?" Newbauer asked.

"Yes, your honor," Bannon replied, before acknowledging he acted to defraud multiple donors.

"Do you now plead guilty to count 5, scheme to defraud?" the court clerk asked. "Yes," Bannon responded.

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The judge imposed the agreed upon sentence of a three-year conditional discharge, during which time Bannon cannot serve as a director of a charity or fundraise for a nonprofit. He is also barred from using data gathered from "We Build the Wall" donors.

Bannon said after the hearing that he would call on new Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James and investigate Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, both of whom brought successful cases against Trump.

"Letitia James is the existential threat to the Trump administration," Bannon said.

PHOTO: Steve Bannon, former advisor U.S. President Donald Trump, attends a hearing to enter a guilty plea in his fraud case stemming from a fundraising effort to build a border wall, at the New York Criminal Court, in New York City, Feb. 11, 2025. (Steven Hirsch/via Reuters)

Defense attorney Arthur Aidala said he counseled Bannon to plead out because he did not think Bannon could get a fair shake from jurors in Manhattan.

"This is a spectacular disposition with him," Aidala said, noting the conditional discharge puts no real limitations on Bannon other than charitable work.

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Bragg released a statement after the plea agreement, saying, "This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud. With this felony plea, the defendant will not be able to serve as an officer, director, or in any fiduciary position, or fundraise for, any charitable associations with assets in New York State, nor can he use or sell WBTW donors’ information. New York has an important interest in rooting out fraud in our markets, our corporations, and our charities, and we will continue to do just that."

"We Build the Wall" promised 100% of donations would fund a wall along the U.S. southern border, but Bannon redirected money elsewhere.

Bannon, who served as a senior adviser to Trump during his first term, was indicted in September 2022. He previously pleaded not guilty and the trial was scheduled to begin on March 4.

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Bannon was initially charged in federal court with three co-defendants. However, Trump pardoned Bannon, but not the co-defendants, whose asset forfeitures through prosecution recouped money for defrauded donors.

Bannon defrauded donors to the nonprofit by falsely promising that none of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of "We Build the Wall" president Brian Kolfage, while secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to him by laundering it through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

The campaign represented that "We Build the Wall" would use the money to privately construct the border wall, and prosecutors said a "central piece of the public messaging in support of this fundraising effort was that Kolfage was not taking a penny of compensation." Financial records show Kolfage was paid, according to a secret salary arrangement, an upfront payment of 100,000andmonthlypaymentsofapproximately100,000 and monthly payments of approximately 100,000andmonthlypaymentsofapproximately20,000.

Steve Bannon pleads guilty in border wall fraud case, avoids jail time originally appeared on abcnews.go.com