"As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction. While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle," acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said.
August 20, 2020
"Steve Bannon, 'We Build The Wall' organizers arrested, charged with defrauding donors."
Fox News reports.
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Southern District of New York and the timing is suspicious to me. We will see though. If true jail him - but I have big doubts about this.
Perhaps they can be imprisoned next to the Solyndra fraudsters.
Just another brick in the scam wall, nothing new here.
Good. Now do BLM.
the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on
If that's the bar for fraud in a charity, then shouldn't many other charities have their board members arrested? I'd like to point Ms. Strauss towards the United Way.
The previous administration led me to believe that the president was supposed to protect his associates from things like this. What's wrong with this Trump fellow?
Is this ‘go to jail’ stuff?
Or is it more like Trump U fraud, Trump Charity fraud, or Trump Organization hiking fees when RNC started paying campaign costs instead of DJT? IOW, is Bannon likely to go the way of DJT, or not?
If he did the alleged things, under the amount of scrutiny anybody could predict, then I am at a loss.
I would bet he fights the charges and wins, if this is a political prosecution.
If Bannon did pull an Ilhan Omar, it will be interesting to see how the cy-près doctrine will be used to fund a wall as intended.
So that means Durham's next indictment better not be some pawn like Clinesmith.
Surprise, surprise. Trump hires the best people.
“In a news release, prosecutors said Bannon and another organizer of the campaign, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, claimed that they would not take any compensation as part of the campaign, called “We Build The Wall,” but that was a lie. Bannon, prosecutors alleged, received more than $1 million through a non-profit he controlled, and Kolfage received more than $350,000.“
WaPo
I cant get to the link
What is Bannon alleged to have done?
Trump’s DOJ is on it!
Now let’s return to Hunter and Burisma.
Trump rips private border wall built by group tied to Kobach
By The Associated Press
Posted Jul 13, 2020 at 3:18 PM
HOUSTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized a privately built border wall in South Texas that’s showing signs of erosion months after going up, saying it was “only done to make me look bad,” even though the wall was built after a months-long campaign by his supporters.
The group that raised money online for the wall promoted itself as supporting Trump during a government shutdown that started in December 2018 because Congress wouldn’t fund Trump’s demands for a border wall. Called “We Build the Wall,” the group has raised more than $25 million promoting itself as supporting the president...
Trump tweeted Sunday in response to a ProPublica-Texas Tribune report that the riverbank has started to erode. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered attorneys for Fisher Industries and opponents of the private wall to set a schedule for experts to visit the site and inspect any erosion.
“I disagreed with doing this very small (tiny) section of wall, in a tricky area, by a private group which raised money by ads,” Trump wrote. “It was only done to make me look bad, and perhaps it now doesn’t even work. Should have been built like rest of Wall, 500 plus miles.”
I don't see Bannon cooperating against POTUS, but can against others.
Do dastardly and illegal deeds, they are bound to catch up with you.
Vicki from Pasadena
Oh, my. The Dems are going to run with this.
Gee, how about that. Trumpers being fleeced by a con man? Nah, they've got all that insider knowledge!
Bannon thought he was smarter than Trump. HE could learn a thing or 2 from the master.
Presumably a good time to remind people of The Right's Grifter Problem. (Unless 20 other commenters have already done so.)
I don't know what to make of this Bannon story. It's SDNY so politics has to be part of it. I don't donate to these things after "Wounded Warriors," but it smells like another hit job on Trump.
I'd like to read the specifics, but the SDNY is a real shit show.
But just to be fair, there are grifters on all sides.
I rate politicians the same as actors and whores. At least with whores you get something for your money...
Yeah, there was always something "off" about Bannon. Let see if he pleads guilty or what his response is. His cooperating on the Anti-Trump Book back in 2017, showed me he lacked judgement. This shows me he's a crook.
SDNY
Would Weissmann disagree with the timing?
Isn't this the same DA who is maliciously prosecuting the NRA? I don't trust any accusation coming our of Southern District of NY.
Better yet, let's focus on the Clinton Foundation!
Sounds like FBI not involved in this investigation. Too busy with Bannon's bigger Chinese grift.
Clearly he did not follow the Clinton Foundation rules or he would not have been charged. What are the Clinton Foundation rules? Be a Democrat. Aside from that, there's no difference.
I just read the full text of the indictment. This looks very bad for Bannon et al. I met Bannon once, when Andrew Breitbart was still alive. I believe that Breitbart was the real deal, sincerely committed to his beliefs. Bannon's not.
Too soon to say what impact, if any, this will have on the President and the election.
Fake news which hunt hoax just like the NRA scandal. Arrested by USPS agents... hehehe.
Legal Defense Fund
Oh the irony.
“Prior to his campaign to crowdfund the border wall, Kolfage had been involved in a string of far-right news blogs and groups, one of which had been scrubbed from Facebook for allegedly using fake accounts to drive up website traffic. Some of the sites peddled false conspiracy theories and racist content. As his wall-funding campaign gained national attention, Kolfage had frequently appeared on Fox News and Fox Business, where he defended Trump and slammed his critics for suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.””
CNBC
Trump appointed the prosecutor two months ago ...
As a follow-up, Bannon appears to be worth at a minimum, around $50M. It seems that he is smart enough to not do something stupid when it comes to nickel and dime stuff.
@AA
The link isn't working for me...
My mistake. She took the job on an acting basis two months ago when Barr fired her boss. Trump never appointed her.
The charges look legit. And this is why I stopped donating to political causes. It starts at the local and state level. I saw a Republican phone bank, owned in part by a couple of up-and-coming candidates, that relied on frightening and browbeating old folks to give $25 or $50 to stop them evil whosits. Probably 95 percent of donations went to pay for more fundraising.
Th Clinton Foundation was a complicated scheme to squeeze money out of foreign interests on the premise that Hilary would be president and able to help the donors. They used the scheme to keep their bench of fixers employed and ready, and they paid all of their expenses out of it. You can really enjoy all of the private jet travel when it costs you nothing.
Slimy, slimy, slimy.
DOJ - Republicans suspects - ON THE BALL
DOJ.- Democrat suspects - NOTHING TO SEE HERE. Crimes were committed but they didn’t mean to.
If the world were a fair place, this would be fate of most "charitable" non-profits' management. They all act on the same model for the most part- raise lots of money of which little of it actually funds the so-called goals of the organization. In the end, they all end up being cash cows for the managers and founders and their various friends and families.
Well, there may be some fast and loose use of some of the money here, though it goes without saying that the charges represent an exaggerated interpretation by the Trump-hating Southern District of New York. Bannon should have known that those bastards would be searching for anything to screw him over with. He's a very smart guy - shame on him for being dumb.
"Show me the man,I'll show you the crime".Berea,head of Stalins secret police.,
When famous people do things illegal and unethical they get punished. Good.
Damn, I like Bannon. He's the guy I want to have a beer or three with.
But this looks bad.
I've read this multiple times from different sources and they all appear to follow a script put out by SDNY.
Fraud fraud fraud. Used to fund lavish lifestyle of a triple amputee veteran. No real details besides accusations of falsifying invoices.
I'm not saying it's legit, at all, just saying the press account is so lacking in specifics it makes me wonder if this is just pre-election SDNY shit.
Dunham must be close. The walls are closing in!!!
er...Durham...
If true, throw them in jail...
But now do the Clinton Foundation and Black Lives Matter. I'll wait...
These charges sound plausible, but my first thought when I saw the headlines was that I bet it was in the Southern District of New York. My cynical first impression was correct.
Trump must be setting records for having the most people who were part of his campaign and/or administration charged with crimes.
So the same SDNY that didn’t know where Ghislaine Maxwell was (like the ISI didn’t know Bin Laden was in Abbotabad) has managed to catch Steve Bannon, who must have known there was a target on his back for every publicity-seeking prosecutor out there (I.e., all of ‘em). He seemed a lot smarter than that.
“Kris Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state who acted as an advisor for We Build The Wall, told the New York Times in January 2019 that Trump gave his “blessing” to keep the fundraising campaign going.”
Forbes
I've never seen justice move into action so quickly as when someone connected with Trump is involved.
The younger Trump was a special guest at an event dubbed the Symposium at the Wall: Cartels, Trafficking and Asylum. The three-day affair is put on by the same organizers behind We Build the Wall, the group that raised millions through a GoFundMe account to build a border barrier on the private land where the symposium took place.
I hope it's not true and all those people involved weren't defrauded and NY is just chasing after publicity and anti Trump came.
That being said, they're clearly trying to link this to Trump when he fired Bannon and said awhile ago he didn't like what they were doing with the wall and should let the federal government do it.
Whatever happened to draining the swamp?
One of the big problems on the Right has been that so many of the political class are grifters
Lock them all up
I think that Donald Trump has been poorly served by so many different people that he's chosen to employ or be involved with in some way, more than any other famous or prominent person that I can think of. Why is that? It really comes back on him, that he has bad judgment when it comes to figuring out who should be let in and how to handle those he needs to keep at arms length.
He needs to build a wall around his tendency to give access to the wrong people. And get himself a buffer, as in...a buffer...the family had a lot of buffers. He's certainly looking more like Fredo than Michael these days, that's for sure.
If these allegations are true, send them to jail. While you're at it, take a look at all the other similar organizations, both left and right. Take a look at charities, too. I'll bet this is common practice at most of them. If so, send them to jail, too.
However, I will make a prediction- the promises that the donated money would 100% be used to finance the building of the wall will turn out to be supported only on the word of some of the "donors", almost all of which will turn out to have political ties to the Democratic Party. I suspect the organizers have been set up by straw donors. I write this because of the claims made by the US attorneys along the lines where the donors claimed they donated their last dollars- this just sounds made up at some level.
what were they thinking?
did not even register in a border state?
I don’t understand how anyone donates money to organizations. Especially when Mexico was supposed to pay for The Wall.
The Lincoln Project 2019 to 2020: 89.3% of all funds received went to overhead.
Even the lefties noticed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNvuYPpX0C0
But the Lincoln Project will never have to worry about the deep staters coming after them for what has been typical of these types of organizations and their expenditures.
Now do Black Lives Matter...
This is their October Surprise?
Kinda early and weak, if ya ask me.
Didn’t Bannon work for Trump a few years ago for 27 seconds? Or was Trump working for Bannon?
You know how to recognize the trolls vs the legitimate members of the Althouse community? The trolls will be completely absent on threads like yesterday's post on the Portland mostly peaceful attempted murder, but then will be all over something like this.
LOL! This gets the lefty juices flowing.
Isn't this the same office going after the NRA?
Maybe they can charge Brett Kavanaugh with rape and Carter Page as being a Russian spy next.
Now do Black Lives Matter...
Some, Select Black Lives Matter. #BabyLivesMatter
Religion/morality to keep honest people honest. Competing interests to mitigate progress of others running amuck.
A nice dnc convention week non political prosecution.
Using Nate's snake map it means if the MN poll is accurate AZ and FL should favor Trump at the moment...
I want to see him get a big fine and maybe a little jail time.
And then I want them to do equal enforcement against all the other people running non-profits.
From the Department of Predictions
https://twitter.com/brianbeutler/status/1075797435094630400
if they were Clinton associates, they'd get a pass.
>>Readering said...
Sounds like FBI not involved in this investigation. Too busy with Bannon's bigger Chinese grift.<<
I know there's that capital B and everything, but you misspelled Biden.
Now do the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Bannon hasn't been anybody on the American political scene for years, which weighs in favor of believing there is something there--not just a vendetta.
But it also has nothing to do with Trump. Sorry Inga.
thousand currents is out of berkeley, tides foundation, well your guess is as good as mine,
Yancey, I read the indictment. It's very clear, based on actual quotes provided from the e-mails and web site statements made by the defendants directly to the general public (and to the crowdfunding website they started on) and amongst themselves that they unequivocally promised 100% of funding to actual construction of the wall, with NO money going to the benefit of the founder of the campaign. There's no reliance on private promises to individual donors or anything like that.
Larry J said...
If these allegations are true, send them to jail. While you're at it, take a look at all the other similar organizations, both left and right
That is, of course, the main complaint of Trump supporters. Not that they're not guilty, but that they're guilty of things everyone in this field is guilty of. They're not being targeted because they're guilty, they're being targeted because they are associated with Trump. The security state is trying to deny Trump access to the best talent as an act of sabotage.
Southern District of New York... didn't they just finish up indicting the NRA too?
Deserves my personal "I'm skeptical" tag...
Vance family strikes again..Daddy Vance Sec of State for the peanut farmer, loved the Russians, resigned over attempt to free hostiges held in Iran. Son Vance just a smarmy Stooge as Head of SDNY.
SEC involved in Bannon China gift investigation. SEC head tapped to head SDNY will want to show he can be just as relentless against this crook.
i suppose USPS because the $$ were stashed in those Mailboxes recently found hidden away
I am surprised they did not smell a rat (joke by Lois Lerner minion) when IRS approved them -
IRS Non Profit Determination Letter
Surprise, surprise. Trump hires the best people.
This is fundamentally no different than the Clinton Global Initiative, except the prosecution part. Perhaps you're right - the American people demonstrated better judgement when they decided not to hire Hillary Clinton to be president.
I suspect Bannon et. al. really have broken the law here, but the Southern District of NY demonstrates a suspicious lack of vigilance when it comes to the same behavior on the left. People will not tolerate living under this regime for very long.
The response from conservatives:
If true, send to jail.
If political hit job on flimsy evidence, bad for SDNY.
The response from Leftist Collectivists:
Off with their heads.
Trial is an afterthought.
-------------
The response from Leftist Collectivists regarding their side's similar alleged behavior:
This sounds like a conspiracy theory.
The response in that case from conservatives:
If true, send to jail.
Now do the Clinton Foundation!!
>>Bill Harshaw said...
Trump must be setting records for having the most people who were part of his campaign and/or administration charged with crimes.<<
Indeed. "Charged" of course is the key word there, isn't it.
Surprise, surprise. Trump hires the best people.
Obama hired Biden and Hillary.
Where did all that money go?
I think this is battlespace prep for next week.
They need something to divert your attention when Hunter’s name is repeatedly invoked.
Oh, I see the Clinton foundation has already been mentioned.
Good. Criminals on both side need to face the music.
Remember though, you can’t investigate Democrats for taking in millions in known graft even when billions actually went missing and nobody seems the least bit interested in what happened to it.
Remember that if you put “Clean Energy” in your name, you can rake it in hand over fist, like Nancy Pelosi’s son in Ukraine. Oh wait, we aren’t supposed to talk about that.
We need Trump in office because it's the only way to keep the media caring about corruption.
Sounds a lot like the Clinton Foundation, but nobody has any interest in that one, do they? They had to make up a new charity rating organization when the old widely respected one found it problematic. Nothing stinks to high heaven about that.
The difference is that the Clinton Foundation took hundreds of millions from Putin cronies while doing Putin major favors.
Still I feel like almost all (there have to be exceptions) of these organizations are ripoffs, some of them on the right funded by the left to suck money out.
"Mexico was supposed to pay for The Wall.”
They chose instead to stop the free flow of migrants across their country, which is pretty good, if you ask me. You usually don’t get everything you ask for in a deal.
Trump Breaks With Bannon, Saying He Has ‘Lost His Mind’
In other words, Trump long ago gave you permission not to care.
Better arrest McCabe, Comey et al. soon. Before Labor Day!
Readering: "SEC involved in Bannon China gift investigation."
Hunter Biden gets $1.5B in "investment" from ChiCom backers for an endeavor for which Hunter Biden knows nothing, with no experience, on top of a really back coke and crack habit...right after a trip to China on Air Force 2 with Dementia Joe......
Readering: nothing to see there.
I agree with tim maguire @ 12:49. Also Earnest Prole.
I agree with tim maguire @ 12:49. Also Earnest Prole.
bannon was focused primarily on efforts in europe, against the eu, it's a bankshot against the northern league's salvini and other nationalists,
In defense of Bannon, it was MAGA supporters he was allegedly ripping off. Were they defrauded? If they didn’t really believe Mexico was gong to pay for the wall, who is to say they really believed this money was going to be spent on the wall? Maybe the defense can find some number of the “defrauded” to testify that they knew it was a joke and that the organizers of it were welcome to siphon off their money.
I do wonder how many of the commentators here contributed to the fund. Maybe Althouse and Meade could set up a Restore Heg’s Head go fund me account to raise money to restore the statue or use for their own personal purposes.
I’ll stick with the presumption of innocence for a while.
I would be surprised if Bannon did what he is accused of, having just watched Manafort bite the dust. Bannon is awfully high profile to get caught up this. The Demmies are in the process of putting their own underpants on their heads and running through America’s living rooms—why would you upset that?
Maybe the question answers itself. Or maybe Bannon is just another grifter. If so, he is exceptionally stupid. He has had a target on his back since Trump won.
I think I will give this one a little time since its the same people who told me Carter Page was a russian spy and Michael Flynn was a russian agent traitor.
Btw, did Inga ever answer whether or not she STILL believes Carter Page is a russian spy and Mike Flynn is a traitor?
This could be another instance similar to the obama IRS targeting of conservative groups in the run up to the 2012 election which effectively and improperly shut those groups down during that campaign.
The bizarrely reasoned lawfare attack on the NRA by the state DA now combined with this by the usual suspects in the SDNY is certainly signaling a possible continuation of that tactic.
No evidence, no charges, in Trump DOJ investigation.
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/justice-department-expected-to-close-investigation-into-clinton-foundation-without-charges-report/
Of course, if any of the Build the Wall ads and fliers included a promise to spend 100% of donations on building the wall or made other claims that were quite explicit as to funds disbursement rations/%'s and then did something very different then they were basically waving a red flag in front of the dem weaponized government agencies.
The SDNY is not a reputable outfit. All politics. Bannon is one of the smartest men around. If this turns out to be more than lawfare harassment, I will be very surprised. The other people could well be grifters. Remember how Dick Armey tried to take over the Tea Party.
I also disagree about Trump hiring people. Manafort was hired by his kids. Most of the others that flamed out the first year were GOPe hires.
Pat, I read the indictment, what I don't see in it is the actual evidence, just descriptions of the evidence. I have learned the hard way that indictment documents are often written with a heavy bias that can only be seen upon the actual trial. I fully expect that a lot of the described e-mails/texts are lacking in context to at least some degree, and also that the financial transactions are probably not accurately described, because if they aren't, then these 4 men are complete idiots, and complete idiots are pretty rare. It will interesting to see if the government indicts or calls as witnesses the organization's own lawyers.
I do wonder how many of the commentators here contributed to the fund.
I do wonder how many of us even knew it existed before today.
>>Vicki from Pasadena - Do dastardly and illegal deeds, they are bound to catch up with you.
The following people disagree with you:
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
James Comey
James Clapper
Lisa Page
Peter Strozk
Hunter Biden
The response from Leftist Collectivists:
Off with their heads.
Trial is an afterthought.
Another trimester, another warlock trial. Protest! Throw a baby on the barbie to conjure the secular good. #SomeSelectCivilRightsMatter
Abolish all so called non-profits! Abolish all tax exemptions. Flat tax rate any organization, institution or denomination that receives financial donations. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!
Wait'll they get hold of George Washington's expense account!
For those not getting the reference, George Washington served as head of the Continental Army for free but had a pretty extensive expense account.
One could even say that that it "funded an extravagant lifestyle"
Re Build the wall
Timing sounds suspicious. Sounds to me like they are complaining that he stayed at a Hilton rather than a Motel 6, rented full-size rather than subcompact cars and so on.
I suspect that it will be a big nothingburger.
If it does not, if he is indeed defrauding the organization, then yeah. Jail, fines whatever is appropriate.
John Henry
Drago: Look, squirrels.
Blogger Mark Nielsen said...
You know how to recognize the trolls vs the legitimate members of the Althouse community? The trolls will be completely absent on threads like yesterday's post on the Portland partly violent attempted murder, but then will be all over something like this.
FIFY
John Henry
Banyon bail at 5 million. LOL. More than the alleged scam.
The Clinton Foundation was a small portion of the overall graft machine and it was not limited to Leftist Collectivists.
Billions of dollars were looted from all sorts of budgets.
You think all that cash got to Iran without a little skim?
That's what people honestly thinks when pallets of untraceable cash are shipped?
How many of you were born last night?
Folks, this is how it's done. Get people to donate large amounts of money (for whatever reason) and don't take a salary...just get your expenses paid. This is what the Clintons did.
This is what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do. How do you think these 'Men of God' can afford $20,000 Rolexes, private jet travel, and $3,000 suits?
If I ever had $10M or $20M laying around, this is what I would do. I'd get my entire family on the board of directors taking no salary, but getting all of their expenses paid. It's the exact same thing as it being your own money.
It's a scam, but it's always been a legal scam as long as you had a 'D' after your name.
Time for a bloody revolution in this country unless all sides are skewered...
Based on what little I've seen so far, this looks like a monumentally stupid scheme by Bannon, et al.
On the other hand, if John Kerry can conduct foreign policy with Iran after Obama left office, why can't Steve Bannon build a wall with privately sourced donations?
readering: "Drago: Look, squirrels."
You couldnt challenge a single thing I posted.
Again.
As always.
And you still think Brett Kavanaugh was the leader of a rape gang and that the russians hacked voting machines in 2016 so, you know, your "analysis" usually comes up a bit short.
Stephen Kevin Bannon, (born November 27, 1953). That makes him 66 1/2 years old. Bannon, formerly a very smart guy, has increasingly done squirrely things as he's grown older.
Backing Judge Roy Moore for the Republican nominee for Senate in Alabama was squirrely.
Getting into his present circumstance was even more squirrely.
Recent pictures of Bannon shows him as disheveled and overweight. When he wears glasses instead of contact lenses the lenses appear to be as thick as Coke bottles.
Overweight people, particularly overweight older people, pump out inflammatory cytokines which can affect the way the brain operates.
Come to think about it, Trump also qualifies in this regard. But he's certainly not disheveled (although many of his utterances are).
Blogger Tomcc said...Based on what little I've seen so far, this looks like a monumentally stupid scheme by Bannon, et al.On the other hand, if John Kerry can conduct foreign policy with Iran after Obama left office, why can't Steve Bannon build a wall with privately sourced donations? 8/20/20, 5:18 PM
Well none of us are familiar with these charges against Bannon. But we won't see anything about this till next year. Never cared for him - he worked for Goldman Sachs, not one of my favorite banking firms on Wall Street. But Inga and her ilk on this blog keep harping about how crooked it makes Mr. Trump look? Really, think about this Liberals, Obama had to accept a illegal loan for his house in Chicago from a supporter. Eight years later Obama left the WH as a multimillionaire. Who's the crook?
The $5 million bail confirms this is lawfare. Bannon is too smart for any scheme like this. I have no idea about the other people but I have high regard from Bannon. He does look like an unmade bed but take a look at a lot of smart people.
But Inga and her ilk on this blog keep harping about how crooked it makes Mr. Trump look? Really, think about this Liberals, Obama had to accept a illegal loan for his house in Chicago from a supporter. Eight years later Obama left the WH as a multimillionaire. Who's the crook?
Inga, of course, is an idiot but I see a lot of Democrats who should know better acting pretty crazy. We've already had a preview of Trump's tax return hysteria. The IRS is staffed by the people who took down the Tea Party on Obama's orders. Does anyone sane think they would have passed on any mischief by Trump on his taxes ? Rachel Maddow got a leaked copy of his 1995 return and learned he paid $25 million in taxes. TDS is not good for you weak minded types.
Drago said...
The bizarrely reasoned lawfare attack on the NRA by the state DA now combined with this by the usual suspects in the SDNY is certainly signaling a possible continuation of that tactic.
--------------=================
could this mean - NY be in play for 11/3/2020
ga6 said...
Vance family strikes again..Daddy Vance Sec of State for the peanut farmer, loved the Russians, resigned over attempt to free hostiges held in Iran.
------------=================
I would have to say Cyrus could have known something - Jimmy does a Libya (Hillary may have learned from him) om American soldiers ...
With the Iran Hostage Crisis stretching into its sixth month and all diplomatic appeals to the Iranian government ending in failure, President Jimmy Carter ordered the military mission as a last ditch attempt to save the hostages. During the operation, three of eight helicopters failed, crippling the crucial airborne plans.
From the WeBuildTheWall website, dated 1/1/2020:
"We Build the Wall was founded by Brian Kolfage. A triple-amputee Air Force veteran, Brian gave up three limbs in service to his country in Iraq. And during the first year of We Build the Wall’s existence, Brian gave to the organization his time and boundless effort to accomplish what many said was impossible—building the first crowd-funded section of border wall in U.S. history. As We Build the Wall enters its second year, starting on January 3, 2020, Brian will be taking on the formal position of Chief Executive Officer of We Build the Wall and will be compensated for his tireless work on what has become the focus of his career. Under Brian’s leadership, We Build the Wall is moving into its second year with unwavering determination to continue building privately-constructed border wall."
This could just be cover for dipping into the till earlier, but this would seem to obviate the charges that he said he wouldn't take a dime from the donations.
Also the website they say part of their mandate besides building a physical wall, of which they have built in two places, is promoting social welfare. They are engaged in:
Educating Americans through direct community engagement on issues surrounding the border crisis.
Direct Community Engagement
Wall A Thon
Symposium
Border Wall Finale Events
Town Halls across the USA
Border Wall Bus Tours
Social Media & Online Media
Live Stream educational events
Digital advertising & marketing
Documentary
Would some of expenses incurred by Kolfage and Bannon be legitimate for them to be reimbursed?
Bannon's net worth is estimated in the millions, so it's perplexing he would be involved in what amounts to petty theft, given his worth of $47 million. Bannon claims it's all political-- an effort to stop their efforts to privately build sections of a barrier on the border.
The timing is certainly political.
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