Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon pleads not guilty in border wall fraud case

Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty while appearing in a virtual court hearing over border wall fraud case. Bannon was arrested earlier on Thursday, August 20 (local time) over the charges of scamming donors in an online fundraising scheme aimed at the construction of Trump's promised wall along the country's southern border with Mexico.

The latest in the long list of Trump administration officials being indicted or charged, Bannon was reportedly taken under custody at 7:15 AM (local time) on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut and was then brought to New York City. 

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‘We Build The Wall’ campaign's fraud

Steve Bannon is primarily accused of using the money raised from his anti-immigrant group ‘We Build The Wall’ for personal interests. The entire campaign has come under scrutiny, for it was headed by people who promoted their close relations with US President Donald Trump to raise over $25 million. They even vouched for their contribution to the building of ‘big beautiful’ border wall along the US-Mexico border. 

However, as per the criminal charges unsealed on August 20, very less amount of the money raised by the campaign was actually used in the construction of the wall. Instead, the funds allegedly made the people involved wealthier. Steve Bannon served the US President during the latter’s election campaign of 2016 and is believed to have received over $1 million by diverting ‘We Build The Wall’ funds. 

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Bannon is accused of secretly paying some part of the money to a co-defendant, Brian Kolfage (the founder of the project) along with covering hundreds of thousands of dollars for own expenses.

The indictment also noted that Bannon had pledged the entire money raised by the campaign would be used for the construction of the wall but the founders ended up defying their promise and using a huge sum of money on themselves. 

Meanwhile, Donald Trump called Bannon’s arrest as ‘sad’ and denied knowing anything about the entire project. The US President also said that he never believed in a privately-financed barrier. “I thought that was a project being done for showboating reasons," he said.

(With AP Inputs)

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