Steve Bannon, former advisor to President Donald Trump, arrives for a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 11, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to a fraud charge related to deceiving donors who gave money to a private effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.
Bannon, 71, pleaded guilty to one scheme to defraud count as part of a plea agreement to avoid jail time. The Associated Press reports that he received a three-year conditional discharge, which requires that Bannon stay out of trouble to avoid more punishment.
His case was scheduled to go to trial March 4.
Bannon’s deal comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Department of Justice to probe what President Donald Trump called the "weaponization of prosecutorial power."
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What they're saying:
Bannon left the courtroom and said he felt "Like a million bucks" the AP noted.
Defense attorney Arthur Aidala called the case against Bannon flimsy, saying it was never about his client.
"Mr. Bannon deserves credit. He wants to fight. Everyone knows Steve Bannon, he always wants to put up a fight," Aidala told the AP.
Bannon called on U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin a criminal investigation into New York Attorney General Leticia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
What was Steve Bannon’s fraud case about?
The backstory:
Alvin Bragg’s office charged Bannon in state court after a Trump pardon in 2021 erased federal charges on the same allegations.
In September 2022, Bannon pleaded not guilty to a state court indictment charging him with money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy.
Bannon was accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the "We Build the Wall" campaign would go to building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors alleged the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.
The campaign, launched in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump fired Bannon as his chief strategist, raised more than $20 million and privately built a few miles of fencing along the border.
According to the AP, it soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and received criticism from Trump.
Bragg started the case after Trump cut Bannon’s federal prosecution short with a pardon in the final hours of his first term in the White House. The AP noted that presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.
The AP noted that Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, two other men involved in the wall project, pleaded guilty to federal charges, and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was convicted and sentenced to prison.
Bannon went to prison in an unrelated case in 2024 and served four months at a Connecticut prison for defying a subpoena in the congressional probe into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He was released in October.
In November 2024, Judge April Newbauer ruled prosecutors could show jurors certain evidence, including an email they say shows Bannon was concerned the fundraising effort was "a scam," the AP.
According to the AP, Bannon’s lawyers in January 2025 filed paperwork asking Newbauer to dismiss the case, calling it an "unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law." Newbauer was expected to rule on that on Tuesday before Bannon’s plea deal made the request questionable.