Former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon must face trial in New York on criminal-fraud charges over a push to fund the former US president's signature wall along the US-Mexico border, a judge ruled on Friday. Justice April Newbauer's decision to deny Bannon's motion to dismiss the charges paves the way for a trial set to start on Dec. 9, just six weeks after he is scheduled to be released from federal prison.
Bannon is serving a four-month sentence for defying a congressional subpoena. Bannon, 70, was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office in September 2022 with money laundering and conspiracy for allegedly deceiving donors who contributed more than $15 million to the private fundraising drive, known as "We Build the Wall." Construction of a border wall was a key element of Trump's immigration policies during his presidency, supported by his fellow Republicans but opposed by Democrats and immigrant advocacy groups.
According to the indictment, Bannon promised donors that all their money would go toward building Trump's wall, but he concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive's chief executive Brian Kolfage, a decorated U.S. Air Force veteran who had promised to take no salary.
Bannon pleaded not guilty. In his lawyers' motion to dismiss, filed on Dec. 6, 2023, they argued that Bannon transferred some funds to entities Kolfage controlled to reimburse him for reasonable expenses.
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