Indictment Of Trump - 1 of 20 photos show impeached friends of Donald Trump; 1 of 20 photos show impeached friends of Donald Trump;
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's former chief of staff, Steve Bannon, was removed from a luxury yacht and arrested Thursday after he and three of his associates defrauded donors in an attempt to pay for the southern wall, the latest in a string of charges. list of Trump associates to be impeached.
Indictment Of Trump
Organizers of the group "We Build a Wall" have shown that they are willing to help the president build a "big" wall on the US-Mexico border, as he promised during the 2016 campaign. They have raised more than $25 million from thousands of people who have donated money and pledged that 100% of the money will be used.
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But according to the lawsuits released Thursday, most of the money didn't make it to the wall. Instead, it was used to line the pockets of party members, including Bannon, who served in Trump's White House and worked on his campaign.
He allegedly took more than $1 million, using others to secretly pay his friend Brian Kolfage, an Air Force veteran who lost both legs in a mortar attack in Iraq and who started the project, and paid thousands of dollars in expenses. .
"This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled veteran or a politician," said Philip R. Bartlett, director of the New York office. OUR. The Postal Inspection Service, which arrested Bannon on a luxury yacht at 7 A.M
Hours after his arrest, Bannon, 66, of Washington, D.C., pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court. He is the latest addition to a surprisingly long list of Trump associates who have been impeached, including his former campaign chief Paul Manafort, who replaced Bannon, his former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
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Trump has also made it clear he is willing to use his unlimited pardon power to help political allies avoid legal jeopardy, recently overturning the conviction of former political adviser Roger Stone.
Bannon was arrested on the 150-foot (45-meter) yacht Lady May, which was off the Connecticut coast, authorities said. The yacht is owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and is currently being sold for around $28 million. According to Marine Traffic, a commercial tracking service, the ship's beacon went dark on June 17, shortly after it left a port in Connecticut en route to Miami, indicating that its signal beacon was not working or had been turned off.
At the hearing, Bannon appeared on video with his hands cuffed in front of him and a white mask covering most of his face. He was rocking back and forth in the living room with his lawyers on the phone. A judge granted Bannon's release on $5 million bail, secured by $1.75 million in cash.
After leaving the courtroom, Bannon removed his mask, smiling and waving to the press cameras. As he left in a waiting car, he shouted: "This whole competition is to stop people who want to build a wall."
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Kolfage, 38, of Miramar Beach, Fla., did not respond to a request for comment. Also charged are Andrew Badolato, 56, of Sarasota, Florida, and Timothy Shea, 49, of Castle Rock, Colorado, owners of the energy drink company Winning Energy. The company's cans feature an exaggerated cartoon image of Trump and claim to have "12 oz. of free tears." Shea appeared at a press conference in Denver.
Other prominent members of the wall's team included former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, his chief adviser; Erik Prince, founder of the security company Blackwater; former Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado; and former baseball player Curt Schilling. They were not mentioned in the complaint.
“When I read about it, I didn't like it. I said this is for the government, this is not for the common people. And that sounds like a show to me," he told reporters at the White House.
The immigration plan Trump unveiled last year included a proposal to allow people to donate to the long-promised wall, as Kolfage's team previously said it was their project before turning to private construction. But Trump later publicly criticized the project, writing last month that he "didn't agree to do a very small (small) part of the wall, in a fake community, with a secret group that was getting money from advertising," and said, "It was done to make me look bad." "
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Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press that he was notified of Bannon's investigation several months ago, but did not say whether the president had been notified.
According to the indictment, the defendants used false invoices, an unprofitable alternative and fake suppliers to conceal the intended financial loss. Under the plan, Bannon and his co-defendants allegedly paid Kolfage $100,000 up front and $20,000 each month, while they said they served as volunteers and Kolfage was not paid.
The lawsuit alleges that Kolfage "went so far as to send numerous emails to his suppliers asking them to buy coffee from his unrelated business, telling the coffee suppliers that the coffee company was the only way he could 'provide his family with food and a roof above their heads.'"
Kolfage later spent more than $350,000 of the earnings on home renovations, paying off a boat, luxury SUV, golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, paying personal taxes and credit card debt.
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All four were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Originally called "We the People Build the Wall," the campaign launched in December 2018 and raised nearly $17 million in its first week. But it soon began to be reconsidered, according to the decision. The crowdfunding website that hosted the campaign suspended it and threatened to return donations unless the money was sent to a legitimate nonprofit. Bannon was brought in at that time.
Dustin Stockton, who helped launch the campaign and left his job to work on the upcoming election, said it was clear the opposition was "attacking politicians who support President Trump before the election." He has not been charged in this case.
Benjamin Harnwell, who founded the Future Education organization with Bannon in Italy, called the decision "false" and proof that the "dark forces" will never stop destroying the militant Bannon.
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A voice of nationalist, outsider conservatism, Bannon ran the conservative Breitbart News before being tapped to serve as Trump's campaign executive in the critical final months. He later served as a senior strategist during the tumultuous days of Trump's presidency and spearheaded many of his controversial policies, including a ban on travel to Muslim-majority countries.
But Bannon, who clashed with other top advisers, was fired less than a year later. And her estrangement from Trump deepened after she was quoted in a 2018 book speaking out against some of Trump's oldest children. Bannon apologized and soon resigned as chairman of Breitbart.
Bannon, who served in the Navy and worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and as a Hollywood producer before entering politics, now hosts a pro-Trump podcast called "War Room," which began during the presidential campaign and continues. Plague.
The day before the verdict was announced, Kolfage was a guest on the show and asked for donations.
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Long and Colvin called from Washington. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York; Nomaan Dealer in Northbrook, Illinois; Cedar Attanasio in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; Mike Balsamo in Cleveland; Nicole Winfield in Rome and Michael Biesecker in Washington contributed to this story.
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