Former top Trump strategist Steve Bannon was arrested and charged Thursday along with three others for defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors in a Mexico border wall fundraising campaign, in a blow to the Republican incumbent.
The man credited with orchestrating Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid denied one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and another of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to US media. He was released on $5 million bail.
“This entire fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall,” he told reporters outside court, smiling broadly as he removed his face mask and got into a waiting car.
The online crowdfunding campaign known as “We Build the Wall” raised more than $25 million, prosecutors said, which the defendants promised would go towards construction of a southern border barrier but which they instead siphoned off.
The arrest is the latest in a string of high-profile criminal probes into Trump’s inner circle, and comes just months before the November vote in which the Republican hopes to win re-election.
The president aimed to distance himself from the plot, saying: “Don’t know anything about the project at all.”