Steve Bannon överlämnar sig i bedrägerirättegång
Donald Trumps före detta topprådgivare Steve Bannon har under torsdagen åtalats och överlämnat sig till en domare i New York, rapporterar AP.
Bannon står åtalad för att ha förskingrat pengar som donerades till organisationen We build the wall, vars syfte var att bygga en mur på gränsen mellan USA och Mexiko.
Bannon har tidigare stått åtalad i en liknande rättegång men benådades av Donald Trump på dennes sista dag på presidentposten.
Bannon säger enligt AP att både det tidigare och det nuvarande anklagelserna är politiskt motiverade.
– Det här är inget annat än en partipolitisk beväpning av det rättsliga systemet, säger han.
bakgrund
We build the wall
Wikipedia (en)
We Build the Wall is an organization that solicited donations to build private sections of the wall along the Mexico–U.S. border. It started as a GoFundMe campaign by United States Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage in December 2018. Kolfage announced the formation of a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization in January 2019. By mid-2020, over $25 million had been raised and a 3-mile (4.8 km) section of fence had been built. The organization was involved in the construction of walls along the border in Sunland Park, New Mexico and Mission, Texas.
Its advisory board included politicians and activists with a hard-line stance on illegal immigration, including former secretary of state of Kansas Kris Kobach; former congressman Tom Tancredo; Blackwater USA founder Erik Prince; former Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke; and former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, who is chairman of the board.In August, 2020 Brian Kolfage, Steve Bannon, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were charged with a scheme to divert over a million dollars from We Fund the Wall, of which at least $350,000 illegally went to Kolfage for personal use. The men faced federal felony charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Kolfage and Badolato pled guilty, Bannon was pardoned by then-President Trump, and the trial against Shea ended in a hung jury.
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