Former Trump aide Steve Bannon pleads guilty in New York

Steve Bannon, a former top White House aide to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Tuesday in New York in connection with the defrauding of Trump supporters who contributed more than $15 million to a purported effort to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.

Bannon, 71, was sentenced to three years of conditional discharge after pleading guilty, meaning he will not serve any time in prison.

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge April Newbauer also barred Bannon from serving as an officer or director of a charity or any charitable organization in New York state, and from engaging in fundraising, and from not-for-profit groups in the state.

Bannon pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree scheme to defraud. He originally was charged in 2022 with six criminal counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and a scheme to defraud.

The guilty plea came three weeks before the scheduled start of Bannon’s trial in the case.

Bannon originally was charged in federal court with crimes related to swindling donors to the “We Build the Wall” organization. He was awaiting trial in that case in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, and was free on a $5 million bond when Trump pardoned him on the last night of his first term in the White House on Jan. 19, 2021.

Trump does not have the power to pardon Bannon for the case in Manhattan Supreme Court because that is a state court. Presidents can only grant executive clemency in federal cases.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., whose office prosecuted Bannon in the state case, in a statement said, “This resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud.”

“New York has an important interest in rooting out fraud in our markets, our corporations, and our charities, and we will continue to do just that,” Bragg said.

Bannon was convicted at trial of a felony contempt of Congress charge in July 2022. That case related to his willful failure to comply with subpoenas demanding his testimony and records by the House select committee that was investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump.

He was sentenced to four months in jail in that case, but remained free for nearly two years while pursuing appeals. After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request that it hear his appeal, Bannon reported to jail to serve his sentence last July.

Bannon briefly served as a senior White House advisor in Trump’s first term as president, before being fired in April 2017.

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