NEW YORK — Steve Bannon pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of defrauding donors who contributed funds to a private initiative to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. Mr. Bannon, a leading conservative policymaker, had denounced the process as a “political persecution.”
Mr. Bannon, an early ally of President Donald Trump, accepted a plea deal that exempts him from prison time for the “We Build the Wall” scheme, as long as he does not commit further violations.
The settlement comes just days after Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Justice Department to investigate what the president called “political use of prosecutorial power.” The case was scheduled to go to trial on March 4.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Alvin Bragg, filed charges against Mr. Bannon in state court after a 2021 pardon by President Trump dismissed a federal indictment on the same charges. In November, Judge April Newbauer ruled that prosecutors could show the jury certain evidence, including an email they say shows Mr. Bannon was concerned that the fundraising effort was “a scam.”
Mr. Bannon had planned an aggressive defense strategy and recently hired a new team of lawyers, who sought to portray the case to the jury as a deliberate and malicious prosecution.
In January, Mr. Bannon's lawyers filed papers asking Judge Newbauer to dismiss the case, calling it an "unconstitutional selective application of the law." The judge was expected to rule on that on Tuesday, before Mr. Bannon's plea agreement is filed.
Mr. Bannon, 71, pleaded not guilty in September 2022 to a state court indictment charging him with money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. He was accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the “We Build the Wall” campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors charged that the money was used to enrich Mr. Bannon and others involved in the project.
The fundraising campaign, launched in 2018 after President Trump fired Mr. Bannon as his adviser, quickly raised more than $20 million and privately built several miles of border fence. The project ran into problems with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and drew criticism from Republican candidate Trump himself, whose policies it aimed to support.
Attorney General Bragg, a Democrat, reopened the investigation after President Trump dropped the federal prosecutor's investigation into Mr. Bannon, with a pardon granted before the end of his first term in the White House. Presidential pardons only apply to federal, not state, violations.
Prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said in a November hearing that Mr. Bannon himself wrote in an email at the start of the fundraising campaign: "Isn't this a scam? You can't build a wall with that much money." The prosecutor said Mr. Bannon went further, adding: "Poor Americans shouldn't be spending their hard-earned money on something that can't be done."
Two other people involved in the project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was also sentenced to prison.
Mr. Bannon served a four-month prison sentence in Connecticut for another federal charge last year, for resisting a subpoena to appear before Congress during the investigation into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He was released in October. Attorney General Bondi last week created a task force at the Justice Department to review cases that she said appeared to be motivated by "political or other improper purposes," including Attorney General Bragg's investigation into criminal charges against President Trump./ VOA (A2 Televizion)
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