Bannon pleads not guilty in 'We Build the Wall' scheme

(9 Sep 2022)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4396334
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 8 September 2022
1. Donald Trump's longtime ally and White House strategist Steve Bannon led into courtroom in handcuffs, UPSOUND (English): "For every conservative in America, this is what happens in the last days of a dying regime. They will never shut me up, they'll have to kill me first. I have not yet begun to fight."
HEADLINE: Bannon pleads not guilty in 'We Build the Wall' scheme
POOL
New York - 8 September 2022
2. Various of Bannon in court
ANNOTATION: Donald Trump's ally Steve Bannon pled not guilty to money laundering, conspiracy and fraud charges on Thursday. The charges allege Bannon duped donors who gave money to build a wall on the U.S. southern border.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York - 8 September 2022
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Alvin Bragg, Manhattan District Attorney:
"In a series of payments throughout 2019, Mr. Bannon directed We Build the Wall to transfer tens of thousands of dollars at a time to a not-for-profit corporation. This not-for-profit corporation, Bannon's not-for-profit corporation, then paid the salary to the We Build The Wall president, thereby obscuring the source of the funds, in direct contradiction to the many, many promises made by Bannon, We Build the Wall and others associated with this scheme."
4. Various of Bannon exiting court
ANNOTATION: The charges are a state-level reboot of a federal case that ended with a presidential pardon last year.
Bannon has called the charges "phony" and he did not address them after he was released.
STORYLINE:
Former President Donald Trump's longtime ally Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty Thursday to duping donors who gave money to build a wall on the U.S. southern border — a state-level reboot of a federal case that ended with a presidential pardon last year.
Bannon, 68, was released without bail after his arraignment on charges including money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to the "We Build the Wall" campaign. He is the second person pardoned by Trump and later charged by the Manhattan district attorney's office for the same alleged conduct.
Manhattan prosecutors say that while Bannon promised all donations would go to building the wall, he was involved in transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars to third-party entities and used them to funnel payments to two other people involved in the scheme.
The indictment didn't identify those people by name, but the details match those of Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in April.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that after Bannon was pardoned, Manhattan prosecutors decided they had to hold him accountable because the alleged scheme ripped off hundreds of Manhattan residents.  
Bannon's New York charges stem from the same alleged conduct as an attempted federal prosecution that ended abruptly, before trial, when Trump pardoned Bannon on his last day in office. Manhattan prosecutors also charged WeBuildTheWall, Inc., the nonprofit entity that Bannon and his former co-defendants used to solicit donations. The company pleaded not guilty Thursday.
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AP Video: Aaron Ranen and David Martin.
Production by Luke Sheridan
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