The Bannon Indictment
By Andrew C. McCarthy
August 20, 2020 4:50 PM
If there are convictions, the potential penalties are severe.
NR’s Zachary Evans has reported on the Justice Department’s indictment of former Trump campaign manager and White House adviser Steve Bannon, along with three codefendants — Brian Kolfage, an Air Force vet who became a triple-amputee serving in the Iraq War; Andrew Badolato, a longtime Bannon associate; and Timothy Shea, who helped Kolfage establish “We Build the Wall,†the campaign said to be at the center of the alleged fraud scheme.
The indictment unsealed today elucidates that a great deal of investigative scutwork went into this case, chiefly by the U.S. postal inspectors and prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Indeed, the investigation was plainly in gear last autumn: The indictment says that in October 2019, the defendants were tipped off by a financial institution that they were under investigation. The wire-fraud and money-laundering charges were a long time coming, and the postal inspectors appear to have meticulously traced the proceeds through numerous bank accounts, real-estate parcels, and at least one vehicle. These are itemized in the indictment’s forfeiture allegations, which are in addition to the significant imprisonment and staggering fines that could result in the event of convictions.
The scheme is big but not complicated. According to the indictment, in late 2018, Kolfage, with the help of Shea and others, established a campaign originally called “We the People Build the Wall†through GoFundMe (described in the indictment as the “Crowdfunding Websiteâ€). The concept was that private citizens would contribute money to be donated to the government for the construction of a wall on the southern border. The campaign was instantly successful as a fundraising vehicle, quickly racking up $17 million in commitments, and ultimately $25 million.
more
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/the-bannon-indictment/
