Bannon’s Absence From Inauguration Suggests Musk May Be Getting the Last Laugh in MAGA War
ICED OUT
While Bannon was MIA during the swearing-in ceremony, Musk was front and center. Jan. 20 2025 7:06PM
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bannons-absence-from-inauguration-suggests-musk-may-be-getting-the-last-laugh-in-war/
Bannon Predicts ‘Criminal’ Zuckerberg Will ‘Flip’ on Trump
‘FANTASTIC APP’
The former Trump adviser, who was released from prison in October, also celebrated how the billionaire class has “surrendered” to the president-elect. Updated Jan. 19 2025
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bannon-predicts-criminal-zuckerberg-will-flip-on-trump/
Bannon berates Musk over his attacks on Trump’s AI infrastructure project
“I’ve never seen action like this in my life,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s one-time chief strategist, said. 01/22/2025 07:51 PM EST
Some conservatives and MAGA faithful are livid over Elon Musk’s daylong public meltdown over Donald Trump’s AI infrastructure project, saying the president’s staff needs to get control of the tech titan.
Steve Bannon, in an interview with POLITICO, said Musk “brought in his own personal vendetta” when the world’s richest man began railing against Trump’s announcement of a $500 billion dollar investment in AI infrastructure from tech giants OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/22/bannon-musk-trump-ai-infrastructure-00200126
Steve Bannon’s border wall trial delayed until March 4 as new lawyers plot aggressive defenseJanuary 22, 2025
NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Bannon’s trial on charges that he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border will start a week later than scheduled, a judge said Wednesday, after the conservative rabble-rouser hired new lawyers to pursue an aggressive defense strategy.
Bannon, a political strategist and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 25 in the “We Build the Wall” case in state court in New York. It will now start March 4, Judge April Newbauer said.
Newbauer agreed to the delay after summoning Bannon to court to quiz him about his decision to shake up his legal team. She rejected new defense lawyer Arthur Aidala’s request for a month-long postponement.
“I’ve been smeared by a political prosecution — persecution — for years, and I need someone who’s a little more aggressive,” Bannon told the judge during a brief hearing in Manhattan. “I need every tool in the tool box.”
https://apnews.com/article/steve-bannon-border-wall-scheme-trial
Steve Bannon’s trial for border wall fraud is postponed to Feb. 25
The conservative podcast host and Trump ally recently finished a four-month prison sentence on unrelated charges.
NEW YORK — Steve Bannon’s trial on state charges that he conspired to defraud donors to a border wall charity will be postponed until late February, a judge ruled Monday.
The delay gives the conservative podcast host a bit more breathing room between his four-month prison stint for contempt of Congress, which ended in late October, and his upcoming trial regarding the “Build the Wall” charity, which had been set to begin Dec. 9.
Bannon didn’t attend Monday’s court conference in person, but appeared virtually. He didn’t speak except to acknowledge he could attend the trial starting Feb. 25.
Justice April Newbauer delayed the start date to allow Bannon’s lawyers additional time to prepare for new evidence the judge ruled prosecutors could introduce.
The case is being prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which brought charges against Bannon after Donald Trump, during his first term, pardoned his longtime ally from charges in a similar federal prosecution. Presidents do not have the power to pardon people facing state charges.
During the court conference Monday, prosecutors asked for the jury in Bannon’s trial to be anonymous. They didn’t provide any reasoning for the request. The judge didn’t immediately rule on it.
Since emerging from prison on Oct. 29, Bannon immediately resumed advocating for Trump, working to mobilize MAGA voters and watching as Trump won reelection the following week.
“The four months in federal prison, not only did it not break me, it empowered me,” Bannon said during a broadcast following his release from prison. “I am more energized and more focused than I have ever been in my entire life.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/18/steve-bannon-border-wall-trial-date-00190183
Steve Bannon’s border wall charity scheme trial delayed until February
NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Bannon’s border wall fundraising trial was postponed to February as prosecutors disclosed Monday that the former Trump White House strategist himself once suggested the nonprofit venture was “a scam.”
Bannon — who recently finished serving federal prison time for a contempt of Congress conviction — had been due to go on trial next month on state charges related to the defunct “We Build The Wall” campaign. He has pleaded not guilty.
Launched in 2018, the fundraiser rapidly raised more than $20 million and privately built a few miles (kilometers) of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and drew criticism from then-President Donald Trump, the Republican whose policy the charity was founded to support.
Early on in the campaign, Bannon pooh-poohed it, prosecutors said at a court hearing Monday.
“Isn’t this a scam? You can’t build the wall for this much money,” Bannon wrote in an email, according to prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson. He said Bannon went on to add: “Poor Americans shouldn’t be using hard-earned money to chase something not doable.”
Yet Bannon changed his mind and got involved with WeBuildTheWall Inc. because he saw an opportunity to advance and make money for his own, separate not-for-profit group, Levinson said.
Bannon, who had served as Trump’s 2016 campaign CEO and White House adviser, chaired the wall charity’s advisory board. Bannon was not in court for Monday’s hearing but listened in virtually. He did not speak except to say, “yes, ma’am” when asked whether he understood he must be in court when jury selection starts Feb. 25. Prosecutors asked Monday for an anonymous jury, but no decision has been made.
Bannon, who turns 71 next week, faces state charges including conspiracy and money laundering and has called them “nonsense.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, brought the charges after Trump pardoned Bannon in a similar federal prosecution that was in its early stages. Until Monday, jury selection was due to start Dec. 9.
The case revolves around money paid to Brian Kolfage, a disabled military veteran who launched the campaign. He promised the public that he would not “take a penny of compensation” from the money poured in from 325,000 donors.
But, as Kolfage eventually admitted in a federal case that sent him to prison, he pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars. About $140,000 of his secret salary was funneled through Bannon’s own organization, Citizens of the American Republic, or COAR, prosecutors say.
And COAR got and kept hundreds of thousands of dollars more from WeBuildTheWall during a period when Bannon’s group was haggling with credit card company American Express over paying down a $612,000 balance, Levinson told the judge Monday.
“How much cash do we have??? We need more cash from the wall,” he quoted Bannon as writing to one of his associates in February 2019.
Prosecutors don’t claim Bannon stole the money from the wall charity or from his own. But they say the transactions help explain his motive to participate in the alleged scheme.
“Helping to pay Kolfage’s salary ultimately helped the defendant personally,” Levinson said.
Bannon’s lawyers say COAR was being paid for work performed.
“He was entitled to the money. COAR was entitled to the money,” and they were free to spend it on a credit card bill or “to give some of it” to Kolfage, defense lawyer John Carman said.
He argued that the credit card matter was irrelevant, saying prosecutors were just trying to make Bannon look shady to jurors.
“They’ll think, ‘What a big AmEx bill. I wonder whether those are legitimate COAR expenses?’” Carman said.
“Not necessarily in this county,” Manhattan Judge April Newbauer countered, “but we’ll see.”
She ruled prosecutors can present the evidence at trial. Defense lawyers have said they now need a financial expert to address it.
With both sides’ witness lists now potentially expanding for various reasons, Newbauer pushed the trial back to Feb. 25 but warned it would not be bumped again.
Bannon went to prison for snubbing a congressional subpoena in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack investigation. Bannon, who called himself a “political prisoner,” is appealing his conviction.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/steve-bannons-border-wall-charity-scheme-trial-delayed-until-february