Steve Bannon allegedly ripping off Trump true believers who sent in their dollars for his phony We Build The Wall, Inc. was deemed a federal crime — conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering — by a Manhattan federal grand jury that indicted Bannon and three pals in August 2020.
But Bannon never faced justice, instead getting a pardon from President Trump on the day before Joe Biden was sworn in. Two of his buds pleaded guilty and the fourth went to trial this spring.
So it is entirely right and just and legal and constitutional for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, aided by state Attorney General Tish James, to bring state grand jury charges of money laundering and conspiracy and fraud against Bannon for the scheme, which Bragg and James say kept some of the donations despite promises that all funds would go for the wall on the border with Mexico.
Double jeopardy? No, as Bannon was never prosecuted by the feds. No plea agreement, no trial, no nothing. The pardon short-circuited the process. Furthermore, anticipating such a maneuver by Trump to aid his circle of crooks and con artists, New York law was changed to allow prosecutions of individuals who had received presidential pardons. But that’s not even the situation here, as federal wire fraud and state conspiracy charges are different offenses. Bragg and James were careful, as they had to be.
However, assuming that Bannon, chairman of the advisory board for We Build The Wall, Inc., does not cop a plea like his two compatriots, he’ll go to trial. And that could be dicey. Tim Shea, the fourth federally charged man who went before a Manhattan jury, got a mistrial in June when 11 jurors wrote the judge that the 12th peer in the room would not deliberate, claiming the matter was a “government witch hunt.” It only takes one to hang a jury that must be unanimous.
That wall case could be a preview of what any future prosecution of Trump himself could face.
