Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon entered a guilty plea Tuesday, February 11, in Manhattan criminal court to a fraud charge connected to the “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign, accepting a deal that allows him to avoid jail time in a case that has spanned multiple jurisdictions and years of legal proceedings.
The plea agreement, reached approximately three weeks before his scheduled March 4 trial in Manhattan, includes a three-year conditional discharge. As part of the arrangement, Bannon is prohibited from serving as a director of any New York nonprofit or raising money for charities with assets in the state for three years. He is also banned from using or selling donor data obtained through the scheme.
The case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, accused Bannon of deceiving donors who contributed more than $15 million to the private fundraising initiative. Prosecutors alleged that Bannon and other officers of “We Build the Wall” diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars into their own pockets while promising donors their contributions would fund the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Steve Gruber, an anchor on Bannon’s media network Real America’s Voice, confirmed the arrangement through “a very reliable source,” stating it “will keep him out of jail and in the War Room,” referring to Bannon’s program.
The fundraising campaign initially raised more than $25 million, with organizers promising to help construct private sections of wall along the border. The group managed to build sections in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Mission, Texas, but faced ongoing legal challenges and erosion issues. President Trump later criticized the private wall project, saying he had disagreed with it.
In August 2020, federal agents arrested Bannon while he was on a yacht off the Connecticut coast. The dramatic arrest led to federal charges, but Trump’s pardon before leaving office in January 2021 halted the federal case against him. The state-level charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office cannot be pardoned by the president.
Brian Kolfage, who served as the organization’s chief executive and Bannon’s co-defendant, received a sentence of 51 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. The judge noted that the fraud went beyond defrauding individual donors and had a “chilling effect” on political donations. Another co-defendant, Andrew Badolato, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for his role in the scheme. Timothy Shea was also convicted of related charges and awaits sentencing.
Bannon’s plea represents a significant shift from his initial response to the charges. He had been planning an aggressive defense strategy before ultimately reaching the plea agreement. The case was particularly notable as it was brought by the same office that obtained the only criminal conviction of a former or future president in the case against Donald Trump.
This marks Bannon’s second criminal conviction. He previously served four months in federal prison after being found guilty of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack. In that case, prosecutors successfully argued that Bannon willfully ignored clear and explicit deadlines to provide documents and testify before the committee. The jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding him guilty on two counts.
Following his contempt conviction, Bannon unsuccessfully appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A three-judge panel rejected his argument that he was not guilty because his lawyer advised him not to respond to the congressional subpoena. While he could have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices previously declined to help another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, avoid prison on similar charges.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office brought charges against Bannon in 2022, alleging a scheme that prosecutors claimed netted “$15 million from thousands of donors across the country based on false promises.” Initially, Bannon had pleaded not guilty to five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges in the New York case.
“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, who had promised to take no salary,” according to Reuters.
Following his guilty plea, Bannon has continued his attacks on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, calling them “existential threats” to the Trump administration, though he did not directly address his own case.