He thought he was off the hook.

Former adviser to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, was charged Thursday in New York with financial fraud in a case of money laundering and embezzlement for the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico, in a political climate electric.

Already charged by federal justice, he had been pardoned by Donald Trump before his trial.

And if we cannot answer twice for the same charges in the United States, the State of New York passed a law in 2019, which makes it possible to dissociate federal and local charges.


Steve Bannon entering courtroom just now for arraignment: “They will never shut me up, they'll have to kill me first.”

pic.twitter.com/j075rpnkWX

— Olivia Rubin (@OliviaRubinABC) September 8, 2022

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Welcomed by a forest of cameras in front of the courthouse, Steve Bannon, who then appeared with his hands cuffed behind his back in a court hall, said he was "persecuted" by the New York justice system, including the first magistrates, the prosecutors Letitia James and Alvin Bragg, are elected from the Democratic Party.

The one who was an adviser to former Republican President Donald Trump in 2017 castigated “a partisan politicization of criminal justice”.

"It's a crime to make a profit by lying to donors and in New York you're held accountable for it," prosecutor Bragg told a news conference as he unveiled the charges, including money laundering, against Bannon and the association “We Build the Wall” which had raised some 15 million dollars in the United States to finance the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.

This is the estimated amount of "fraud" against "thousands of donors across the country" who believed in "false promises", according to a statement from New York prosecutors.

" Not guilty "

The wall was a campaign promise of Republican Donald Trump elected president in November 2016 and according to Letitia James, Steve Bannon was "the architect".

“So when Mr. Bannon created a fundraising structure to finance the construction of this wall, millions of dollars were stolen to line his pockets and those of other politically close friends,” she accused. .

Bannon pleaded not guilty and walked free, promising to turn over his passport to authorities.

Figure of right-wing populism in the United States, Steve Bannon, 68, owes his legal troubles to the same case which had earned him in 2020 a first indictment for fraud before the federal justice of the United States.

The former White House adviser was even arrested in August 2020, accused with three other protagonists of having defrauded and embezzled part of the millions of dollars in donor funds to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. .

But Steve Bannon was never tried by a court because he had been pardoned by Donald Trump on January 20, 2021, just before leaving the White House to leave it to Democrat Joe Biden.

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