Steve Bannon pleads guilty in border wall fraud case

NEW YORK -- President Trump's confidante Steve Bannon pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding New Yorkers who donated to We Build the Wall, an online fundraiser for Trump's signature project during his first term, in exchange for a sentence without prison time.

"The parties have worked out a plea agreement Mr. Bannon will plead guilty to count 5 of the indictment, which is scheme to defraud in the indictment. He will receive a conditional discharge," prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson said.

The guilty plea to the felony charge represents Bannon's second criminal conviction after he served prison time for contempt of Congress.

Bannon showed up to court in a brown barn jacket, his brushed back grey hair spilling over the upturned collar. He sat at the defense table signing papers before Judge April Newbauer affirmed that he now wanted to plead guilty.

"Is that what you wish to do?" Newbauer asked. "Yes, your honor," Bannon replied, before acknowledging he acted to defraud multiple donors.

"Do you now plead guilty to count 5, scheme to defraud?" the court clerk asked. "Yes," Bannon responded. The judge imposed the agreed upon sentence of a three-year conditional discharge, during which time Bannon cannot serve as a director of a charity or fundraise for a nonprofit. He is also barred from using data gathered from We Build the Wall donors.

We Build the Wall promised 100% of donations would fund a wall along the U.S. southern border but Bannon redirected money elsewhere.

Bannon was indicted in September 2022. He previously pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to stand trial next month.

Bannon was initially charged in federal court with three codefendants. Trump pardoned Bannon but not the codefendants, whose prosecutions asset forfeitures that made defrauded donors whole.

Bannon defrauded donors to the non-profit by falsely promising that none of the money they donated would be used to pay the salary of We Build the Wall president Brian Kolfage, while secretly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to him by laundering it through third-party entities, prosecutors said.

The campaign represented that We Build the Wall would use the money to privately construct the border wall, and prosecutors said a "central piece of the public messaging in support of this fundraising effort was that Kolfage was not taking a penny of compensation." Financial records show that Kolfage was paid according to a secret salary arrangement an upfront payment of $100,000 and monthly payments of approximately $20,000.