New York prosecutors target Steve Bannon for criminal prosecution
Based on publicly available subpoenas and court proceedings, it’s been clear for more than a year that the Manhattan District Attorney is targeting Donald Trump for criminal prosecution on financial crimes once he was out of office. Earlier this week the news broke that the DA is also criminally targeting Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. Now we can add another name.
After the Feds arrested Steve Bannon for financial fraud, Donald Trump pardoned him for it. But pardons don’t apply to state level charges, and now CNN is reporting that the Manhattan District Attorney is criminally targeting Bannon for that same scam. There are some double jeopardy questions on these kinds of cases in New York. But the state has updated the statute since the ill fated Paul Manafort prosecution. Additionally, Bannon’s federal pardon is written poorly. So the District Attorney really just has to charge Bannon for something slightly different than the Feds did, and they should be good to go.
It’s worth pointing out that these kinds of financial fraud cases are so cut and dried, they have a very high rate of conviction. In other words, Steve Bannon is likely headed to prison, along with Donald Trump and others.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report