Steve Bannon wins week-long delay of trial for ‘We Build the Wall’ crowdfunding scam

Steve Bannon convinced a Manhattan judge Wednesday to let a “more aggressive” attorney defend him against charges similar to those President Trump pardoned him for and won a weeklong delay of his upcoming trial. 

At a brief hearing, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge April Newbauer granted a request from Bannon to retain attorney Arthur Aidala in the “We Build the Wall” fraud case after summoning the right-wing political strategist to court to explain himself.

“The reason was I’ve been smeared by a political prosecution, persecution for years,” Bannon said. “I need people that are more aggressive and will use every tool in the toolbox to fight this.”

Rescheduling the trial by a week to March 4, the judge told Bannon, “Every tool in the toolbox does not include delaying the trial.” She agreed to the brief delay so Aidala could catch up. 

At the hearing, Aidala rejected accusations by the prosecution that he’d disingenuously sought to delay the proceedings when he asked them to agree to a delay so he could first represent Harvey Weinstein in his unrelated rape and sexual assault matter. A trial date has not yet been set in that case.

The switchup marks Bannon’s second, with his first set of lawyers asking to withdraw from the case in January 2023 when they said he’d become impossible to represent.

Aidala said Bannon first approached his firm in December and that he turned him down. The lawyer changed his mind in early January, a couple of days after learning Trump wasn’t picking him to be the new U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, for which he was rumored to be under consideration. 

Bannon, 71, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of money laundering, three counts of conspiracy and one count of scheme to defraud in the case filed in September 2022, in which the “We Build the Wall” Florida-based entity was also charged. Last year, he served four months in federal prison for an unrelated conviction for defying a congressional subpoena related to the House Committee’s probe of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In Manhattan, he’s accused of serving as the architect of a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Trump supporters who donated money toward the “We Build the Wall” crowdfunding effort to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, including hundreds of Manhattan residents. 

While Bannon and others involved promised to devote “every penny raised” to the wall’s construction, prosecutors say they used it to enrich themselves.

Bannon was federally charged for the scheme in 2020 alongside three other men who have all been convicted. He received a pardon from Trump in the eleventh hour of his first term in office.

Brian Kolfage, a Purple Heart veteran, pleaded guilty to the federal charges in April 2022 and was later sentenced to more than four years in prison. Andrew Badolato, another conspirator, also pleaded guilty and received a three-year prison term. A jury found the fourth man, Colorado businessman Timothy Shea, guilty in October 2022 after his first trial ended in a mistrial with a juror holdout alleging a government “witch hunt.” Shea was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

As the charges now facing Bannon in Manhattan are on the state level, Trump cannot intervene. He faces up to 15 years if convicted of the top count.

On his way out of court, Bannon had no comment on the case. Instead, the former top Trump strategist criticized one of the president’s new top advisers, Elon Musk, as “out of control.”

Originally Published: January 22, 2025 at 6:45 PM EST