Update: Steve Bannon has surrendered Thursday morning to authorities and is expected to face New York state charges related to an effort to raise money to fund construction of a wall along the southern US border.
He said the Manhattan DA is also looking at charging him.
The former Donald Trump aide is likely to plead not guilty Thursday when arraigned later Thursday, his attorney Robert Costello told CNN.
The state charges, which have been returned in an indictment, are based on the same conduct Bannon was charged with by federal prosecutors in 2020 that alleged he and three others had defrauded donors in the border wall effort, which raised more than $25 million.
Presidential pardons do not apply to state investigations, however.
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Original Story
Steve Bannon was indicted late Tuesday night and is expected to surrender himself to prosecutors in the state of New York on Thursday.
Charges are being brought by the Soros-Funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. They are expected to parallel the federal charges for which Trump pardoned Bannon around the “We Build the Wall” fundraising effort.
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In a statement, Bannon said District Attorney Alvin Bragg “has now decided to pursue phony charges against me 60 days before the midterm election,” accusing the Democratic prosecutor of targeting him because he and his radio show are popular among Trump’s Republican supporters.
If Democrats weren’t desperate to cling to power, wouldn’t the DA have held off until after the November election?
“The SDNY did the exact same thing in August 2020 to try to take me out of the election,” Bannon said, referring to his arrest months before Trump’s re-election loss.
Federal agents pulled Bannon from a luxury yacht off the Connecticut coast and arrested him on charges he pocketed more than $1 million in wall donations.
“It didn’t work then; it certainly won’t work now,” the former White House strategist said. “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
“They are coming after all of us,” Bannon said in a statement, “not only President Trump and myself. I am never going to stop fighting. In fact, I have not yet begun to fight. They will have to kill me first.”
Of this latest indictment, Bannon called it a “partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.” He said he was proud to be “a leading voice” on border issues and crime.
Bannon was recently convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the January 6 Committee.
READ BANNON’S STATEMENT
Today Steve Bannon faces criminal charges by a Regime desperate for power who has openly declared war on half the country
In no uncertain terms: this is EVIL
This is BIGGER than politics or a news cycle
BANNON: “I have not yet begun to fight. They will have to kill me first.” pic.twitter.com/Y6aDjB1mJz
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 7, 2022
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