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Stephen Bannon, then Chief Strategy Officer under the Trump administration, was given a last-minute amnesty
(AFP via Getty Images)
A federal judge has formally dismissed the charges against Stephen Bannon In the light of his amnesty, but Donald TrumpFormer adviser allegedly received over $ 1 million in funding from people who thought they were donating to the US-Mexico border wall campaign.
Judge Analisa Torres’s order in the U.S. District Court ended months of legal disputes, but the state saidWe build a wallThe funding plan is still imminent.
“By October 2019 … Banon and other defendants each received hundreds of thousands of dollars and used them for personal expenses such as travel, hotels and personal credit card debt,” the order said. It was.
Bannon said that for their role in “We Build The Wall,” a private campaign to raise money to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, so-called large-scale funding He was arrested last August for money laundering fraud and charged with three others.
Hundreds of thousands of people donated to the campaign and raised more than $ 25 million after being approved by Mr. Trump’s allies. The campaign organizer, along with Bannon, the chief strategist of the Trump administration, allegedly deceived the donor in the guise of spending money on construction.
Trump then issued a “complete and unconditional amnesty” to Bannon in January, the last day at the White House five months after his arrest.
Judge Torres granted his application, stating that “dismissal of the indictment is a good path” for the former president’s amnesty, but detailed his alleged role in the plan.
She quoted a New Jersey court in 1833, stating that “pardon means courage.”
“Without guilt, there is no basis for forgiveness …. He was acquitted for innocence. He was pardoned,” said Judge Torres.
Brian Kolfage, a conservative activist who founded the “We Build the Wall” campaign, was recently charged with tax evasion in another case.
The judge wrote to give an amnesty: “Of course, the amnesty alone, does not render [a defendant] Alleged innocence. .. .. “It’s a breach,” he said, and the amnesty does not “eliminate possible causes of guilt.”
“On the contrary, since the early days of the country, courts, including the Supreme Court, have admitted that amnesty can be issued without a formal confession of guilt.[y] Guilt Attribution; Accept It’s Confession. “
Bannon and Corfezi, along with the other two, denied all accusations against them.
The order also stated that Mr Bannon paid Mr Corfezi a secret salary from the campaign finances and used it for himself.
“Bannon used a significant portion for personal use and expense unrelated to” building a wall, “apart from using these funds to pay Corfege’s secret salary.” Said the judge.
All three other co-defendants in the case have not been pardoned and they are preparing to be tried in federal court. Bannon is still facing a New York state investigation after the investigators filed a lawsuit in response to Mr. Trump’s amnesty.
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