Steve Bannon criminally indicted in New York – what’s really going on here?
Back in February of 2021 – a year and a half ago – a major news outlet reported that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was criminally investigating Steve Bannon for his “build the wall scam,” after Donald Trump had pardoned Bannon on federal charges for the same crime. Since that time, very little else has surfaced publicly about this probe. But in a reminder that criminal probes in motion tend to quietly stay in motion until we hear otherwise, the Washington Post says the Manhattan DA is criminally indicting Bannon this week and has instructed Bannon to turn himself in.
Ever since Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg made the decision months ago not to bring criminal charges in the case he inherited against Donald Trump, Bragg’s name has been mud, and it’s been widely presumed that he had dropped all of the Trump-related cases he inherited. But Bragg swore at the time that his Trump probe was still ongoing. And while Bragg has been a clear disappointment, the general rule still remains that a criminal probe tends to continue being a criminal probe unless we hear otherwise.
So now we have signs of life, finally, out of Alvin Bragg. It’s not at all clear why he’s finally bringing this indictment now, after having waited so long. The Feds had already done most or all of the investigative legwork for him in advance; all Bragg had to do was figure out how to apply state law to Bannon’s actions. This suggests Bragg had been intentionally holding off indicting Bannon for some unknown reason, and now for some equally unknown reason he’s decided to drop the hammer.
This of course raises the question of whether the Manhattan DA’s criminal probe into Donald Trump’s financial fraud is indeed still on the table, as Bragg has long claimed. If Bragg sat on the Bannon indictment all year before finally deciding to bring it, he could potentially be planning to do the same with Trump.
Then again, Trump finally appears to be particularly close to being indicted on very serious federal charges like espionage. So what is Bragg really doing? For now, no one knows. But at the least, recently convicted felon Steve Bannon is now being arrested again, on charges that could carry a longer prison sentence than his existing contempt conviction.
Notably, if Steve Bannon is convicted in New York and given a lengthy prison sentence, he won’t be pardoned. No President can pardon state charges. And while the Governor can pardon state charges, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is not going to pardon Bannon. Nor is her reelection race competitive. If Bannon goes down on these charges, he’ll be in prison for a long time.
