Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and triple amputee Brian Kolfage, along with two others, were arrested on warrants issued by the Southern District of New York. They are charged with fraud. These four men are innocent until proven guilty, and we question anything that comes out of the SDNY, but there have always been questions about the We Build the Wall political action committee.

You can read the entire press release from the SDNY here. Below is a relevant portion of the press release:

Starting in approximately December 2018, BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, and others, orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District of New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign ultimately known as “We Build The Wall” that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. In particular, to induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would “not take a penny in salary or compensation” and that “100% of the funds raised . . . will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose” because, as BANNON publicly stated, “we’re a volunteer organization.”

Those representations were false. In truth, KOLFAGE, BANNON, BADOLATO, and SHEA received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall, which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization’s public representations. In particular, KOLFAGE covertly took for his personal use more than $350,000 in funds that donors had given to We Build the Wall, while BANNON, through a non-profit organization under his control (“Non-Profit-1”), received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which BANNON used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in BANNON’s personal expenses.

In full candor, I donated to We Build the Wall in the very early days. But, within seconds of hitting the donate button, I had questions. By what authority could an alleged charitable organization build a border wall on private or Federal lands? Who would provide oversight? I stopped the donation before it went through. The more I thought about it, the more janky the whole thing seemed. Although Steve Bannon was not involved at the time, there were questions about Brian Kolfage, too. I couldn’t tell whether he was a young man trying to find a way to make a living or a scam artist. The idea of the people building the wall was enticing. It was kind of a big pluck you to the Left.

Brian Kolfage, Steve Bannon and the others did build a bit of wall, with the landowner’s permission, but without building permits. And, a portion of the privately funded wall is falling down:

But engineers who had seen the evidence of erosion told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune there were good reasons not to build so close to the river.

“When the river rises, it will likely attack those areas where the foundation is exposed, further weakening support of the fence and potentially causing portions … to fall into the Rio Grande,” Alex Mayer, a civil engineer professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, said in the ProPublica-Tribune report.

The construction near the river also led the U.S. government to sue Fisher Industries on behalf of the International Boundary and Water Commission, alleging the construction violates international treaties governing the use of the river.

President Trump has never been in favor of the privately funded wall, and today, he distanced himself from Steve Bannon. This is unusual for the President who is extraordinarily loyal.

I love it when an alleged reporter asks Donald Trump about the “lawless” people he has associated with. Well, when the government is out to get your people, they will use any means necessary, legal or ethical, or not.

As I said in the beginning, Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage and their associates are innocent until proven guilty and this is the Southern District of New York. If only the SDNY would go after some of the obvious scam pacs and foundations, especially the ones that rhyme with Blinton.

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