Steve Bannon surrenders to New York prosecutors in border wall fraud case

Former President Donald Trump’s strategist Steve Bannon surrendered Thursday to face new charges in an alleged $15 million border-wall fundraising scam for which Trump pardoned him last year.

Bannon lashed out at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he was escorted into the DA’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, accusing the progressive Democrat of mounting a political prosecution to influence the upcoming midterm elections.

“This is all about 60 days to the day,” he said in a reference to Nov. 8, which is Election Day.

Bannon also invoked a trip by city officials who were sent on a “fact-finding” mission to the southern border Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over the relocation of migrants to the Big Apple.

“This is an irony: on the very day the mayor of this city has a delegation down on the border, they’re persecuting people here,” he said.

Bannon, dressed in a dark jacket and shirt with no tie, spoke as plainclothes and uniformed cops directed him from a black SUV to the entrance of One Hogan Place.

Protesters held signs and jeered him, with one repeatedly yelling, “Stop hurting America!”

Bannon was later brought into Manhattan Criminal Court in handcuffs, which were removed before his arraignment on three counts of conspiracy, two counts of money laundering and one count of scheme to defraud.He faces a maximum of five-to-15 years in prison if convicted.

Defense lawyer David Schoen, who defended Trump during his second impeachment trial, entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Bannon, who was released without bail pending an Oct. 4 court hearing.

As he left the courtroom, Bannon said, “It’s all nonsense. They will never shut me up.”

Outside, Schoen said, “I read the charges all the way through. He is not guilty of anything that he is charged with or of any crime.”

Bannon, who hosts the “Bannon’s War Room” podcast, also repeated the notion that he’d been charged to “shut me down and take me out” of what he called “the most important election since 1862, since the Civil War.”

“I got news for them. I have not yet begun to fight,” he said.

“We are going to win a sweeping landslide at every level. From school boards to election officials, the state legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate. We are not going to back down and they will not be able to shut me up.”

A supporter shouted, “We love you, Steve!” when he finished speaking.

During an afternoon news conference, Bragg and state Attorney General Letitia James said the charges against Bannon were the result of a joint probe launched after he was pardoned.

Bragg said Bannon and other organizers of the “We Build the Wall” campaign repeatedly lied to prospective donors by claiming that “not one penny” would go to its president, US Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who lost three limbs in a 2004 bomb blast in Iraq.

“But instead of pennies, the president of We Build the Wall received more than $250,000 in salary funded by donations, at least $140,000 of which we allege was laundered by Steve Bannon” through a nonprofit he controlled, Bragg said.

Bragg, who took office Jan. 1 and inherited the investigation from former Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., also said the alleged scam “impacted hundreds of Manhattan residents” who made donations.

“It is a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable,” he added.

James said evidence in the case included a text message in which Bannon allegedly said that if Kolfage were to promise not to take a salary, it would be “the most talked-about media narrative ever.”

In other text messages, Bannon allegedly outlined who salaries would be paid and said there would be “no deals I don’t approve,” James said.

James also called the fundraising effort “nothing more than a ploy to garner media attention and to rob innocent, hardworking Americans out of their money.”

Neither official addressed Bannon’s assertion that the case against him was politically motivated.

Trump pardoned Bannon — the CEO of his winning 2016 campaign and a former White House adviser — during the final hours of his presidency.

The move, late on Jan. 19, 2021, came as his longtime ally was awaiting trial with three co-defendants in Manhattan federal court after pleading not guilty.

But presidential pardons only cover federal crimes and don’t prevent prosecutors from filing state charges over the same allegations.

Federal authorities had accused Bannon of scamming $1 million from donors following his August 2020 arrest while aboard the Lady May, a $28 million yacht owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.

In a written statement Tuesday, Bannon called the pending state case against him “phony” and “nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”

Bannon is already facing up to two years in prison for contempt of Congress over his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to block certification of the 2020 election results.

Bannon was convicted in July following a trial in Washington DC federal court and last week jury were flawed.

Thursday’s indictment charged Bannon and We Build the Wall Inc. with three counts of conspiracy, two counts of money laundering and one count of scheme to defraud.

If convicted, Bannon would face a maximum five-to-15 year prison sentence and We Build the Wall Inc. would face monetary penalties, Bragg said.

The $15 million figure that Bragg and James attached to the alleged scheme is $10 million less than what federal prosecutors said was raised through the GoFundMe website.

Bragg said the lesser amount represented what authorities believed were the proceeds of fraud. He declined to say who, if anyone, was cooperating with authorities.

The new indictment alleges that Bannon was involved in funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to two other people involved in the scheme.

They’re not identified by name but appear to be Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, both of whom pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and are awaiting sentencing.

A fourth defendant, Timothy Shea, scored a hung jury in June after his case went to trial, with panelists saying a lone holdout refused to vote to convict, with another “on the fence.”

Shea faces an Oct. 24 retrial.

With Post wires