USA: former White House strategist Steve Bannon will appear in court in New York on Thursday to answer to charges that he defrauded donors to a fund to erect a wall along the US-Mexico border.
The charges, according to the person who declined to be named discussing the case before it is made public, are related to Bannon's involvement in "We Build the Wall," which funded about 8km (five miles) of border fencing in two locations in Texas and New Mexico.
In a federal case that also concerned "We Build the Wall," Donald Trump pardoned Bannon on his final day in office.
Federal prosecutors also charged three additional men with fraud, but they were not granted pardons. Two entered guilty pleas, one was tried, and the jury was deadlocked in June.
Two months ago, a federal jury in Washington found the longtime Trump adviser guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress based on Bannon's refusal to comply with a subpoena from the congressional panel looking into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Early last year, according to people familiar with the situation, Manhattan prosecutors were collaborating with New York Attorney General Letitia James, the city's top law enforcement official, to gather data for an investigation into Bannon's involvement in "We Build the Wall."
We Build the Wall" was a private-sector initiative to back Trump's pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border in 2016.
In 2020, Bannon was accused of engaging in the alleged scheme and was later found guilty of fraud. Just hours before Trump left the White House, he was pardoned.
But because presidential pardons are only valid in federal cases, Trump was unable to protect his former aide from state-level investigations.
The new indictment was previously reported by The Washington Post.
Office of the District Attorney declined to comment.
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