President Trump’s former campaign manager and chief strategist, Steve Bannon, who’s been ordered to report to prison by July 1 and begin serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, also has a court date in New York on September 23 with Juan Merchan, the same judge who presides over Trump’s hush-money case. New York state prosecutors at Manhattan have charged Bannon with six felony counts, including money laundering and conspiracy, alleging that Bannon schemed to defraud donors who contributed more than $15 million to a “We Build the Wall” campaign, which claimed to let ordinary Americans help build a wall at the southern American border. According to the indictment, Bannon concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the fundraising drive’s chief executive who’s since been sentenced to four years in prison. The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, who worked together with the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, in the investigation, said that Bannon “took advantage of his donors’ political views to secure millions of dollars which he then misappropriated” and that he “lied to his donors to enrich himself and his friends.”Ms. James and Mr. Bragg have been at the forefront of blue state elected prosecutors going after Trump. Mr. Bragg successfully prosecuted Trump in the hush-money trial, presided over by Judge Merchan, while Ms. James won a giant judgment against Trump after suing him for business fraud.Judge Juan Merchan in his chambers at New York, March 14, 2024. AP Photo/Seth WenigLoren Merchan, Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, has worked as a Democratic operative. FacebookTrump’s denunciations of Judge Merchan for liberal bias have been a persistent feature of his ongoing legal travails. Trump has repeatedly accused Judge Merchan of “actual and perceived biases,” and pointed to the political activities of the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, a Democrat, who has done political campaign work for some of Trump’s most devoted enemies, such as Vice President Harris and Congressman Adam Schiff. Most nettling to Trump about Judge Merchan has been his imposition of a gag order, which bars Trump from criticizing Ms. Merchan and also two of his chief antagonists, the adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and Trump’s former attorney and current nemesis, Michael Cohen. With the first presidential debate only a week away, Trump has been aggressively seeking to have the gag order overturned so he can insult and rebut Cohen and Ms. Clifford from the lectern.Meanwhile, Bannon has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him in the “Build the Wall Now” case. He was initially charged in the case by federal prosecutors at Manhattan in August 2020, but received a presidential pardon from Trump in a last-minute decision, hours before the former president left the White House on January 20, 2021. When New York state prosecutors criminally charged Bannon in the same case, Bannon’s defense attorneys claimed it to be “double jeopardy,” that he can’t be charged with the same crimes for which he was pardoned by Trump. Mr. Bragg and Ms. James took advantage of a new law, signed in 2019 by Governor Cuomo, which specifically empowered New York prosecutors to charge people for the same crimes for which they were pardoned by Trump.Steve Bannon speaks after leaves the federal courthouse October 21, 2022. AP/Jose Luis MaganaAnother wrinkle complicates Bannon’s double jeopardy argument: he was pardoned before he was tried in the federal case, putting him a legal gray area, that of someone pardoned for offenses of which he was never convicted.The double jeopardy question, like many legal disputes between Trump and blue state prosecutors, will likely be decided on appeal, should Bannon be convicted. In his “Build the Wall” fraud case, Bannon is due to appear at Manhattan criminal court on September 23, at the same courthouse, on the same 15th floor, and in the same exact room, where Trump just spent six weeks during his recent hush-money trial, before Judge Merchan. If the trial commences as planned in September, Bannon would be traveling to New York from Danbury, Connecticut, where he is supposed to be serving his four month prison sentence for contempt of Congress. According to a recent report by CNN, Bannon has been assigned to the low-security federal prison’s men’s unit, which houses more than 1,000 prisoners, and is much larger than the women’s unit, which inspired the hit Netflix show “Orange is the New Black.”Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro speaks to reporters before he heads to prison, Tuesday, March 19, 2024 at Miami. AP/Adriana Gomez LiconEven though Bannon was sentenced nearly two years ago for contempt of Congress for failing to respond to a subpoena issued to him by the then-Democrat-controlled House Select committee investigating the January 6 riot, he has not served his sentence due to his various appeals of the case. On June 6, as the Sun reported, a federal judge ordered Bannon to begin his sentence on July 1. Yet last week, Bannon’s legal team asked the Circuit Court of Appeals at Washington, D.C., in an emergency appeal to let him stay out of prison while he appeals, including potentially to the Supreme Court.In their petition, Bannon’s attorney, Trent McCotter, argued that the case is politically motivated, and jailing his client would have implications for the 2024 election between Trump and President Biden, writing that there was “no denying” of the “political realities.” Bannon, who hosts the War Room podcast, “is a high-profile political commentator and campaign strategist,” his lawyer argued, adding that his client “was prosecuted by an administration whose policies are a frequent target of Mr. Bannon’s public statements.” “The government seeks to imprison Mr. Bannon for the four-month period leading up to the November election, when millions of Americans look to him for information on important campaign issues,” Mr. McCotter wrote. “This would also effectively bar Mr. Bannon from serving as a meaningful adviser in the ongoing national campaign.”The former White House strategist, Stephen Bannon, arrives at court at Washington, July 22, 2022. AP/Jose Luis MaganaBannon’s defense attorneys have further argued that Bannon did not respond to the congressional subpoena because he relied on the legal advice of his former lawyers that the information being sought was protected by executive privilege. In their 36-page long motion on Tuesday, defense attorneys wrote that Bannon has also “retained experienced Supreme Court counsel,” and urged the appeals court to hold off on the prison sentence until the Nine consider the case.However, Trump’s former White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro, raised a similar argument in his case that was rejected by an appeals court, as well as by the Supreme Court. Navarro is currently serving a four-month prison term in the Federal Correctional Institution of Miami after also being found guilty for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena issued by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot. Navarro recently spoke to the Daily Caller from prison, where he said, “Lawfare is real. Lawfare is wrong … We’re not supposed to act like Communist China or a Banana Republic. But that’s the growing perception of our justice system.” Navarro added that “Democrats may rue the day they put me on the inside to see the level of incompetence and the misery among inmates and their families it is causing.”On Saturday, Bannon spoke at Turning Point Action’s “The People’s Convention” at Detroit, hours before Trump was scheduled to take the stage. He threatened to see officials from Biden’s Justice Department prosecuted as soon as Trump regains the White House, as retribution for what he called their legal persecution of conservatives.Steve Bannon (C), advisor to President Trump, appears with members of his legal team outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 15, 2022 at Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images“We’re coming after Lisa Monaco, Merrick Garland, the senior members of DOJ that have prosecuted president Trump, Jack Smith,” Bannon told the crowd. “You are going to be investigated, prosecuted, and incarcerated … November 5 is judgment day. January 20, 2025, will be accountability day.” The Justice Department answered Bannon’s emergency filing with their own motion on Monday. Contrary to Bannon’s claim, they wrote, Trump’s attorney at the time, Justin Clark, never advised Bannon to ignore the subpoena. “Rather, Clark made clear that he had not suggested total noncompliance and that he did not believe Bannon was immune from testifying,” prosecutors wrote in their filing on Monday. “Without the ability to enforce its subpoenas, Congress ‘could be seriously handicapped in its efforts to exercise its constitutional function wisely and effectively,” prosecutors added. Bannon’s claims that his freedom is supported by a “strong public interest,” is not applicable, prosecutors further argued, because it does not exclude him from the law. Bannon, they concluded, “cannot reconcile his claim for special treatment with the bedrock principle of equal justice under the law. Even-handed application of the bail statute requires Bannon’s continued detention.”The Circuit Court of Appeals at Washington, D.C., has not ruled on the emergency appeal yet.
