Bannon Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Border Wall Case but Will Serve No Time
Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to President Trump, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in Manhattan criminal court to a single count of defrauding donors who sought to help build a wall at the southern border.
Mr. Bannon’s plea deal stipulates that he will be given a three-year conditional discharge, meaning he will receive no prison time if he does not reoffend.
He had faced five felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy charges, and faced a maximum sentence of five to 15 years on the most serious charge.
In the courtroom Tuesday, Mr. Bannon sat among his three lawyers and answered “Yes, your honor” as the judge, April A. Newbauer, asked him detailed questions about his understanding of the deal and the rights he was surrendering, including his right to appeal. Mr. Bannon’s trial had been scheduled to begin in March.
Mr. Bannon was charged by the Manhattan district attorney’s office in 2022 with a scheme to swindle donors who contributed to a group called We Build the Wall, a seeming grass-roots effort to fulfill a key promise of Mr. Trump’s first term.
Rather than make a border wall a reality, the prosecutors said, Mr. Bannon funneled more than $100,000 in donations to the organization’s president.
A plea — the possibility of which was first reported by Law360 — represents an end to the case against Mr. Bannon. It also represents an end to his fight against the charges, which were brought more than two years ago. As recently as last month, Mr. Bannon referred to the case as a “political prosecution.”
An influential right-wing media figure, Mr. Bannon was an architect of Mr. Trump’s 2016 election victory and served as a White House strategist.
The case centers on his involvement with We Build the Wall, which raised more than $25 million to help construct a barrier between the United States and Mexico. The group’s officers conspired to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars into their own pockets, lying to funders, prosecutors said.
In 2020, federal prosecutors charged Mr. Bannon in relation to the scheme. But shortly before leaving office, President Trump pardoned him. Several of Mr. Bannon’s co-conspirators, who did not receive pardons, were ultimately sentenced to prison, including the group’s president, Brian Kolfage.
In 2022, the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicted Mr. Bannon and charged him in the scheme, which it said had “netted $15 million from thousands of donors across the country based on false promises.”
