Ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s border wall fraud case postponed to February

Nov. 18 (UPI) — Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon will see a February trial in his continued legal imbroglio after his recent release from jail, a judge says.

Judge April A. Newbauer has set Feb. 25 as the start date for Bannon’s trial on state charges for alleged money laundering, conspiracy and a scheme to defraud others in his now defunct “We Build The Wall” campaign.

The trial, first scheduled for November 2023 with repeated delays, is related to a case in which Bannon, now 70, had already been the recipient of a presidential pardon in Trump’s first term.

It had been slated to begin Dec. 9 but will now take place roughly a month after Trump is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20 after Newbauer agreed to the delay.

Newbauer, a 1979 Cornell University graduated who completed her J.D. at New York University School of Law in 1983, began her judicial career on the New York State Court of Claims following her 2012 appointment by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo before sitting as an acting justice in New York’s lower bench.

Bannon and his cohorts, it’s alleged, tricked unwitting donors out of millions of dollars to complete Trump’s failed promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming they would privately do so.

In August 2020, Bannon was indicted on federal charges for which Trump granted him a pardon as one of his last acts as president in 2021 at the end of his first term. However, such an executive act for this set of charges will not apply.

Prosecutors say evidence shows charity funds were used to cover credit card debt of more than $600,000 owed by another Bannon-run “not-for-profit” organization.

But according to prosecutors, the group pocketed donations. Bannon, however, says he’s not guilty and called the charges “nonsense.”

Along with ex-Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro, both he and Bannon served time in prison following the House holding them in contempt for failure to comply with a subpoena connected to the deadly January 2021 Capital attack.

He started his prison sentence July 1 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Danbury, Conn.

The conservative commentator and former White House official who worked as a campaign strategist for then-candidate Donald Trump, was released from federal prison Oct. 29 after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.