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Steve Bannon Indicted

Meadmaker said:
I suspect he sincerely believes that the money he took from the fund was perfectly legitimate. A man of his organizing skills and financial genius cannot be found cheaply, you know. This was reasonable and customary use of salary and expenses for people organizing a non-profit.

He'll be genuinely surprised when he is found guilty.



Or......not. Due process and all that. Let's hear his case. Try not to laugh.
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I don't know all the particulars of this fraud and the evidence they might have on the individual defendants. This was a fake charity. That used sham vendors, fake invoices and shell companies. This demonstrates mens rea.

But does it demonstrate that for each of the defendants? Were each "paper partners" of the charity or were one or more of the defendants outside of organisation and was just paid by it for "services"? How this was set up may make a difference. I want to see the evidence.

Adding on. This seems to be an open and shut case against Bannon and Koflage and probably the other two. Apparently all of them said over and over that they wouldn't take any money. Yet, Bannon took over a mollion dollars. Not sure how much Koflage was compensated but he used money to buy a very nice new 40 foot boat.
 
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acbytesla said:
I don't know all the particulars of this fraud and the evidence they might have on the individual defendants. This was a fake charity. That used sham vendors, fake invoices and shell companies. This demonstrates mens rea.

But does it demonstrate that for each of the defendants? Were each "paper partners" of the charity or were one or more of the defendants outside of organisation and was just paid by it for "services"? How this was set up may make a difference. I want to see the evidence.

Adding on. This seems to be an open and shut case against Bannon and Koflage and probably the other two. Apparently all of them said over and over that they wouldn't take any money. Yet, Bannon took over a mollion dollars. Not sure how much Koflage was compensated but he used money to buy a very nice new 40 foot boat.
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A boat called "Warfighter", which was in the Trump boat parade.

Oh, and I don't think Bannon sincerely believes in anything but the awesomeness of himself. Rather like Trump in that regard.
 
acbytesla said:
No. This is the 5th time this has all been investigated. Only ONE person has been covicted of anything. It was investigated by Republican Robert Mueller. It produced about a dozen indictments including Americans and Russians. It was investigated by no less than 3 Congressional committees and it was deemed properly opened and properly predicated. It was investigated by Republican Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Nothing was found other than one guy who edited an email to get a FISA warrant. That was wrong and he deserved to be prosecuted. But this was not a political hit job put together by some huge conspiracy of high level Democrats.

Durham's got ****. It will be exaggerated and spun no doubt. We've seen Bill Barr in action with how he summarized the Mueller report inaccurately.
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Hey, Tes. This reads like a concise summation of a recent Glenn Kirshner YT video. :thumbsup: Whose output I watch without fail.
 
acbytesla said:
I don't know all the particulars of this fraud and the evidence they might have on the individual defendants. This was a fake charity. That used sham vendors, fake invoices and shell companies. This demonstrates mens rea.

But does it demonstrate that for each of the defendants? Were each "paper partners" of the charity or were one or more of the defendants outside of organisation and was just paid by it for "services"? How this was set up may make a difference. I want to see the evidence.

Adding on. This seems to be an open and shut case against Bannon and Koflage and probably the other two. Apparently all of them said over and over that they wouldn't take any money. Yet, Bannon took over a mollion dollars. Not sure how much Koflage was compensated but he used money to buy a very nice new 40 foot boat.
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I have watched people persuade themselves that they are doing perfectly legitimate business even when it was incredibly bloody obvious that they weren't. The human capacity for self deception is stunning. People can talk themselves into things even though it's obviously wrong, as long as it makes them money.

I'll bet that they thought what they were doing was legal, and they may have even thought they were doing a good deed and getting fairly compensated for it.
 
Anyone else notice the parallels between Bannon and the Wall Scheme and LaPierre and the NRA?

looks like Republicans like to be fleeced as long as the one's doing it seem to be ideologically sound.
 
Meadmaker said:
I have watched people persuade themselves that they are doing perfectly legitimate business even when it was incredibly bloody obvious that they weren't. The human capacity for self deception is stunning. People can talk themselves into things even though it's obviously wrong, as long as it makes them money.

I'll bet that they thought what they were doing was legal, and they may have even thought they were doing a good deed and getting fairly compensated for it.
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the barest of minimum of research would have shown that the scheme was not possible from the start - as their Crowdfunding host site pointed out.
 
Meadmaker said:
I have watched people persuade themselves that they are doing perfectly legitimate business even when it was incredibly bloody obvious that they weren't. The human capacity for self deception is stunning. People can talk themselves into things even though it's obviously wrong, as long as it makes them money.
I'll bet that they thought what they were doing was legal, and they may have even thought they were doing a good deed and getting fairly compensated for it.
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Not only as long as it makes them money, but as long as it feeds their emotional/psychological needs.
 
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Aug. 24, 2020:
Border Wall II
 
I love this quote from The Daily Show.

"Steve Bannon is accused of stealing money from people who thought they were donating to build Donald Trump's wall. Because, you know, you wouldn't want any criminals sneaking into the country."
 
dann said:
Not anymore.




What did it say?
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Shame on me for not taking a screenshot.

It was a photo Kolfage took with a child who had sold hot chocolate to raise money for the campaign. This article covers it briefly.
Americans all over the country poured money into the wall project, including Benton Stevens, an 8-year-old Texas boy who set up a hot chocolate stand and website to raise funds in early 2019. Stevens donated approximately $28,000 to Kolfage’s effort, according to his parents, and he helped cut the ribbon on Kolfage’s first completed wall project.
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Interestingly, it is not just this tweet that was deleted, but Kolfage's entire twitter account. Fun question: Could this constitute destruction of evidence?
 
I Am The Scum said:
Shame on me for not taking a screenshot.

It was a photo Kolfage took with a child who had sold hot chocolate to raise money for the campaign. This article covers it briefly.


Interestingly, it is not just this tweet that was deleted, but Kolfage's entire twitter account. Fun question: Could this constitute destruction of evidence?
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Sure it "could". But I guarantee the FBI has that evidence. So it is doubtful he could be prosecuted for it.
 
Hopefully these kids will take it as a learning experience. "When I was eight, I was conned by my parents into raising money for a wall to keep out scary brown people, on behalf of Trump the con-man. It turned out the fundraiser was a scam, like so much else from Trump." Then something about growing and learning from the experience and it helping to make him into the man he is today, etc.

Or it becomes a sunk cost fallacy thing, where he feels a psychological need to defend what he did, and buys into the narrative that all politicians are corrupt, [boogeyman of the day] couldn't have done a better job, and brown people still need to be kept out by white ICE stormtroopers, an electrified wall, and preferrably a moat with crocodiles.
 
Oh! I almost forgot:

There is a website that collects deleted tweets from elected officials/candidates. The list is searchable, so you can see any mention of Kolfage, Bannon, etc. For example, you can see this 17-week-old tweet from Congressional hopeful Kat Cammack, deleted just a few days ago:
@BrianKolfage , an Iraq War Veteran and the founder of “We Build The Wall Inc,” announced today that he was endorsing Kat Cammack in her congressional bid for Florida’s 3rd congressional district.
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Kolfage is a piece of work. Check this out from an excellent Buzzfeed article that details how they short paid a contractor by millions for work performed on one section of their alleged wall.

Kolfage confirmed that We Build the Wall pulled back financial support for the wall in Mission, Texas, and stopped "investing" after lawsuits were filed against the project.

"We decided not to invest any more into that project because it was too risky to tie up our funds in a project that could be litigated long-term," Kolfage told BuzzFeed News. "We backed out soon after the legal issues came up in Texas."
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Yes, because who could ever have foreseen long-term litigation risk when a private, fraudulent charity decides to build a wall on an international border, with fish and wildlife and politics and Texas property rights in play. :rolleyes:
 
I'm weird. :o But a certain someone might get a wee chuckle...

SG = Skeptic Ginger
Steve Bannon = SB = Septic Binger
 
A few developments in the Bannon case....

From: CNN
Three men indicted alongside former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty Monday...Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, Timothy Shea and Bannon are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
...
All four appeared via video conference at a court hearing Monday, where US District Judge Analisa Torres set a trial date of May 24, 2021.


Nothing really unexpected here... we knew others besides Bannon were to be charged, and a non-guilty plea is rather standard.

It is unfortunate that the trial won't be until well after the election (so it will be easier for Stubby McBonespurs to ignore), but these things do often take time to work their way though the courts.
 
Bump! Fast forward past the trial and conviction (I found the “most appropriate” Steve Bannon thread as we didn’t have a better recent one):

“WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve his four-month sentence for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol insurrection, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

“U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington granted the Justice Department’s request to make Bannon begin his prison term after a federal appeals court panel last month upheld his contempt of Congress conviction.”

https://apnews.com/article/2da50bcf2f8ff8f3e01ef4bf2b1b845e
 
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