September 08, 2022 09:38 AM UTC

New York Prosecutes "We Build The Wall" Scam

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Who will Hiedi Heidi Ganahl turn to for moral support once Steve Bannon layers up in jailhouse orange? It’s a “divisive question” that Ganahl nonetheless should be working on an answer for.

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CNN reports today that former presidential advisor, January 6th, 2021 coup plotter, and quintessential political bad guy Steve Bannon has been indicted by a New York state court on criminal charges related to the failed “We Build The Wall” campaign: a scam to bilk donors out of millions of dollars in fruitless pursuit of a privately-funded wall on the Mexican border:

Former Donald Trump aide Steve Bannon was indicted on state charges of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to an alleged online scheme to raise money for the construction of a wall along the southern US border, according to an indictment obtained by CNN.

Bannon surrendered Thursday morning to authorities and is expected to plead not guilty when arraigned, his attorney Robert Costello told CNN.

The state charges are based on the same conduct Bannon was charged with by federal prosecutors in 2020 that alleged he and three others had defrauded donors in the border wall effort, which raised more than $25 million.

Presidential pardons do not apply to state investigations, however.

“We Build The Wall,” which sold itself as a serious effort to use private funds to build at least appreciable sections of President Donald Trump’s promised but unrealized wall across the entire southern border, never came close to accomplishing its stated goals. But it did manage to raise millions of dollars, not enough for a wall but still a lot–of which Bannon is accused of pocketing $1 million and other co-conspirators getting their cuts as well. That includes right-wing Castle Rock, Colorado businessman Timothy Shea, whose trial on the federal charges Bannon was pardoned for ended in mistrial earlier this summer. Politico reports that Shea is expected to be retried later this year:

Prosecutors said Shea and other fund organizers promised investors that all donations would fund a wall, but Shea and the others eventually pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves.

Shea’s lawyers contended that he acted honorably regarding the fundraising campaign and did not commit a crime.

Shea, of Castle Rock, Colo., owns an energy drink company, Winning Energy, whose cans have featured a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain “12 oz. of liberal tears.”

Colorado’s foremost anti-immigrant firebrand Republican politico Tom Tancredo, who built his career on demonizing immigrants years before it became cool for Republicans again, served on the “advisory board” of “We Build The Wall” and helped sell the idea at meetings around the country. Unlike Bannon and Timothy Shea, Tancredo was evidently not on the revenue-positive side of the grift–or at least not enough to have faced charges of his own.

As for Bannon and his pardon? Even though it’s a state case, isn’t this an instance of what’s known in the law as double jeopardy? As the Washington Post reports, pre-emptive presidential pardons have a loophole:

Because Bannon was granted clemency in the federal case before a conviction, there is not expected to be a viable issue of double jeopardy in his new case.

That’s a check on presidential pardon power that makes plenty of sense after seeing how an unscrupulous President can abuse it.