Authorities on Friday announced that Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, has been arrested. The former White House adviser faces charges in connection to an online fundraising scheme. The fundraiser, ostensibly, was to drum up finances to “build the wall,” a campaign promise of Donald Trump.
However, authorities state that Bannon and others in charge of the fundraiser personally profited from the fund. The fundraiser itself had raised some $25 million towards the goal of erecting a wall along the US’s southern border.
Donald Trump made the border wall a major campaign promise. He also often noted that “Mexico will pay for the wall.” However, no one has begun construction on such a wall, and Mexico has sent the US no funds to enable any such project.
Bannon set up the fundraiser, called “We Build the Wall,” with other conservative leaders. Authorities claim in the indictment that Bannon and his co-conspirators “collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from ‘We Build the Wall,’ which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations.”
Meanwhile, Bannon is far from the first Trump ally to face indictment on criminal charges. Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos and numerous other Trump allies have all faced serious charges. These have all come during the current administration, no less. Officials also indicted Bannon’s three co-conspirators, Timothy Shea, Andrew Badolato and Brian Kolfage on fraud charges.
US Attorney Audrey Strauss released a statement regarding the events Thursday morning:
“The defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction,” Strauss stated.
“While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of ‘We Build the Wall’ would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle. We thank the USPIS for their partnership in investigating this case, and we remain dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting fraud wherever we find it.”
Many of Trump’s critics were quick to point out the widespread corruption observed among the president’s own allies. Left-leaning pundits noted the irony that a campaign promise helped to part Trump supporters from their money. A promise, no less, that was predicated on a foreign nation paying for it.
