Arrested on a yacht after getting charged for defrauding donors, Steve Bannon who is an architect of the United States of America’s President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory pleaded not guilty. The charge of defrauding donors was in a scheme for helping build the wall on the US-Mexico border. This incident happened on Thursday.
Bannon is also popular for helping Trump articulate the “America First,” right-wing populism by majorly opposing immigration. After Trump’s victory in 2016, Bannon served the president in White House as his chief strategist for a year after getting fired from Trump in August 2017.
There is not just Bannon who is charged for defrauding donors, there are three others with him too. All four of them were arrested and charged in Manhattan for having committed wire fraud and planning a conspiracy for money laundering. If proved, they would be sentenced up to 40 years in prison.
The amount of money that is put forward by prosecutors is $25 million. And there are not just one or two people whom Bannon is accused of doing the fraud, but there are hundreds and thousands of donors. Their campaign of the conspiracy was titled “We Build the Wall.” The money was allegedly then utilized for covering Bannon’s and his team’s personal expenses.
Currently, Bannon’s lawyer is said to have entered the plea of not guilty on his behalf in the federal court in Manhattan. Bannon is free taking into account the $5 million bond and also barred from traveling internationally by a federal magistrate judge.
In a brief address to the reporters before leaving in the black SUV, he said,” this entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall.” Although Bannon wasn’t arrested in Manhattan, Connecticut by agents from the US Postal Inspection Service and the prosecutor’s office. According to the law enforcement agency, he was found on a yacht called, the Lady May, which is owned by a Chinese fugitive billionaire Guo Wengui.
Getting a little bio about Bannon tells us that before joining Trump’s campaign he was heading a right-wing Breitbart News website. This website was a call for all right-wing movements for spanning every other party than the right-wing party of the USA i.e. nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and anti-Semites. Bannon has been a strong promoter of all the right-wing causes and candidates.
The words of the president of the United States of America on this event were,” I don’t think it’s a sad event. I haven’t dealt with him at all now for years, literally years.” Although while addressing the reporters at the White House, Trump said how he felt “very badly,” about the charges laid upon Bannon but soon after hearing about the charges started distancing himself from Bannon.
Another thing to note was how Trump denied having known much about this project, but former Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach said that in 2019 Donald Trump has actually offered support to this initiative. Amid controversies, like all other surrounding the United State of America’s president, this one too remains unclear.