Former top Trump advisor, strategist, and campaign CEO Steve Bannon was indicted Thursday after turning himself in at the Manhattan Supreme Court.
New York Attorney General Letitia James posted a scathing rebuke of the far-right-wing activist who once helmed the extremist Breitbart website and sat on the board of directors of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which the Trump campaign used to win the White House.
“After an investigation by my office and @ManhattanDA, Steve Bannon has been indicted for stealing more than $15 million from thousands of Americans for his sham effort to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. No matter how powerful you are, no one is above the law,” James said on Twitter.
“Steve Bannon and ‘We Build the Wall’ took advantage of Americans to line their own pockets and then laundered the money to further hide this scheme. They lied to Americans and stole their hard-earned money,” she charged.
“In New York, we have zero tolerance for corruption or abuses of power,” James continued. “There cannot be one set of rules for everyday people and another for the powerful — we all must play by the same rules and obey the law.”
In a concurrent press release James added: “A New York State Supreme Court grand jury indictment charged Mr. Bannon and We Build the Wall with two counts of Money Laundering in the Second Degree, a Class C Felony, two counts of Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, a Class E Felony, one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a Class E Felony, and one count of Conspiracy in the Fifth Degree, a Class A Misdemeanor. Mr. Bannon is scheduled to be arraigned today before State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan at 2:15 p.m.”
“Mr. Bannon took advantage of his donors’ political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated. Mr. Bannon lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends. We will continue to take on fraudulent behavior in every corner of society, including white collar criminals, because no one is above the law.”
Despite Bannon’s alleged scheme to target and defraud millions from thousands of MAGA Trump voters, the far right is still defending him. Charlie Kirk, one of the most intimately-tied voices of the far right and religious right, called Bannon’s indictment “anarcho-tyranny.”