Steve Bannon,masssge sex videos the rightwing figure who previously served as President Donald Trump's White House chief strategist, was indicted Thursday by federal prosecutors in New York.
Bannon and three others have been charged with defrauding people who donated to the viral "We Build the Wall" campaign on GoFundMe. CNN's Jim Sciutto reported that Bannon has been arrested. He was reportedly arrested on a boat of the coast of Westbrook, Connecticut.
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Prosectors allege in the indictment that despite assuring donors that Brian Kolfage — the founder and public face of We Build the Wall — would not receive a cent, the defendants secretly worked to funnel thousands of dollars to Kolfage to support a "lavish lifestyle."
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"The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds," Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett said in a statement. "As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth. This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist.”
NBC News previously reported in January on some of the shadowy elements of the GoFundMe campaign, noting that it appeared to be an effort to harvest emails. Also in January, GoFundMe offered to refund anyone who had donated to the campaign.
"GoFundMe has a zero tolerance policy for fraudulent behavior and we have been cooperating with law enforcement officials throughout their investigation," GoFundMe spokesperson Bobby Whithorne told Mashable in an email. "Protecting GoFundMe donors is our highest priority and we took measures to do just that."
Bannon was taken into custody by agents from the U.S. Postal Service on Thursday morning.
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Bannon has a long history of working in rightwing circles. For years, he headed up Breitbart, the far-right news source that backed Trump's rise. Bannon jumped on to lead Trump's campaign just a few months away from the election, helping him secure the presidency. Bannon has fashioned himself as a rightwing intellectual and reportedly had plans to push Trump to reshape the globe via nationalist ideals. He was, however, ultimately ousted from the White House after repeated clashes with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
But Bannon's influence still permeates throughout the administration. His ally, Michael Pack, was in June confirmed as the new new CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees the state-run outlets Voice of America, Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund.
"We are going hard on the charge," Bannon told Vox at the time. "Pack’s over there to clean house."
The Trump administration issued a statement on Thursday claiming the president does not know anyone involved in the scheme. That is, however, demonstrably false. He's had plenty of public interactions with a number of the individuals involved in the GoFundMe campaign, some of which CNN's Kaitlan Collins named here:
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