Manhattan district attorney considering prosecuting Stephen Bannon following his pardon by Trump in federal fraud case
By Shayna Jacobs
Feb. 2, 2021 at 7:38 p.m. EST
NEW YORK — The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is weighing whether to bring a state court case against Stephen K. Bannon, who was indicted on federal fraud charges for his role in a fundraising scheme to build a border wall but received a last-minute pardon from President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bannon, one of the architects of Trump's 2016 election victory and briefly a White House adviser, was among 143 people who received pardons from Trump in his last 24 hours in office. Bannon left the White House early in Trump's term after he fell out with the president, who wavered until the last minute on issuing his former strategist a pardon, The Washington Post reported.
Bannon and three others were charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan with falsely claiming that they would not take compensation as part of their "We Build the Wall" fundraising campaign to underwrite part of the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The three others charged with Bannon were not pardoned by Trump.
Investigators working under District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in his office’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau are in early-stage discussions to determine if there’s a state case to be brought against Bannon for his actions in the fundraising campaign, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the office’s deliberations.
It was not clear whether the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is still handling the case against Bannon because it has not yet been formally dismissed, is assisting the state prosecutor’s office in its preliminary investigation. A judicial “sharing order” is required for swapping evidence between the agencies, and it was unclear if one had been obtained.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/steven-bannon-fraud-state-case-pardon-trump/2021/02/02/329cea4e-6596-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html?fbclid=IwAR0v_pFTphf_AjCfW8HSpbvYR-WG_QaJkoVe3BndsZjwvtehYJBER9D0tEw
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