Steve Bannon faces fraud charges in New York over the We Build the Wall charity

By Andrea Bernstein

Published September 7, 2022 at 5:28 AM PDT

Steve Bannon speaks to the media as his lawyer Matthew Evan Corcoran listens after his trial for contempt of Congress began at the U.S. District Courthouse on July 19 in Washington, D.C.

Updated September 7, 2022 at 12:19 PM ET

Former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon is preparing to face New York state charges that he defrauded donors to the nonprofit group We Build the Wall to construct a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

The case is expected to be similar to a previous federal case in which Bannon was indicted but never tried becauseTrump pardoned Bannon before that could happen.

Bannon and others are accused of skimming money from the donors for personal use on things like travel and and credit card debt.

In the original federal case, there were three co-defendants. Two pleaded guilty, another had a mistrial.

A person familiar with the New York case says Bannon will turn himself in to authorities in New York on Thursday. That will make him a member of a large and growing group of former top Trump associates in trouble with the law.

The New York charges come just months after Bannon was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.