Donald Trump passed out pardons like they were parting gifts during his last weeks and days in office — just as we expected. However, just because Donnie gave his closest pals a pass at the federal level doesn’t mean they’re out of hot water when it comes to paying for their sins. Not even close.
According to a breaking report from the Washington Post, close ally to former President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, is far from in the clear, despite the pardon Trump doled out to the one-time White House political strategist.
Now, as I’m sure you recall, Bannon was charged and then eventually pardoned for defrauding hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters through the “We Build The Wall” crowdfunding campaign. You got that right. Donald Trump pardoned a man for literally swindling his own supporters. But tell me again how he “cares about the people.”
But I digress…
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Donald’s parting pardon cleared Bannon of any ramifications of his crimes, but only at a federal level. Bannon can still very much be charged for his crimes at a state level. And according to the new report, both the New York Attorney General as well as the Manhattan District Attorney are making that their mission.
“Investigators employed by the state attorney general were deputized to work as prosecutors with the team led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., whose investigation of Bannon began shortly after his pardon was announced in January,” according to a source that spoke with the Post.
The United States Attorney General for the Southern District of New York asserted last year that Bannon, along with other leaders, defrauded “hundreds of thousands” of donors of the online “We Build The Wall” fundraising campaign by using those donations for their own personal expenses.
At the time, SDNY claimed that the Trump ally funneled “over $1 million from We Build the Wall” into a non-profit that he personally owned. The SDNY claims that Bannon then used at least a portion of those funds “to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars” in personal expenses.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
