At pretrial evidentiary in Manhattan criminal court, the DA's office is previewing financial records illustrating how Steve Bannon's nonprofit Citizens of the American Republic (COAR) funneled money from the We Build the Wall fundraiser to Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage.
Kolfage specifically had pledged that he would take no compensation, but he and venture capitalist Andrew Badolato secretly agreed with Bannon that Kolfage would covertly be paid $100,000 up front, and then receive $20,000 in monthly kickback payments from donor funds.
Prosecutors are arguing that Bannon's nonprofit was involved in milking the We Build the Wall fundraiser for publicity and to pay off a $612,000 credit card balance.
Steve Bannon's defense lawyers insist that COAR's credit card records are "irrelevant" to the We Build the Wall criminal fraud case.
"It doesn't help prove a money laundering case," Bannon's defense argues. "It was is designed to slander Mr. Bannon...to prejudice the jury against him."
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