NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Bannon’s trial on charges that he deceived donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border will begin a week later than planned, a judge said Wednesday after The conservative agitation had hired new lawyers to pursue an aggressive defense strategy.
Bannon, a political strategist and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, was scheduled to stand trial in New York state court on February 25 in the “We Build the Wall” case. It will now begin on March 4th, said Judge April Newbauer.
Newbauer agreed to the delay after summoning Bannon to court to question him about his decision to shake up his legal team. She rejected new defense attorney Arthur Aidala’s request for a one-month delay.
“I’ve been targeted by political persecution – persecution – for years, and I need someone a little more aggressive,” Bannon told the judge during a brief hearing in Manhattan. “I need every tool in the toolbox.”
“Well, every tool in the toolbox doesn’t involve delaying the process,” Newbauer said.
Aidala said Bannon hired him and his firm – including former prosecutor John Esposito and retired judge Barry Kamins – as attack dogs who agreed with his plan to portray the case to jurors as a selective and malicious prosecution.
Bannon said he began looking for new lawyers after he was “shocked” by Newbauer’s decision in November that prosecutors could present certain evidence to jurors, including an email indicating that Bannon was concerned that the fundraiser was “a scam.”
Aidala, a prominent New York defense attorney, told the judge that Bannon approached him about representation in December and, after initially failing, said he agreed to it when his schedule opened up.
Aidala is also representing Harvey Weinstein in his upcoming rape retrial, also in state court in Manhattan. No date was set, but the lawyer had suggested that Weinstein’s trial should be in the “interests of humanity” first, citing the disgraced film mogul’s deteriorating health.
“You know that Mr. Weinstein is dying of cancer and is currently an innocent man in New York state,” Aidala argued at Wednesday’s hearing. He said he asked prosecutors: “Can I try this dying man’s case first?”
Newbauer said that after consulting with the judge in the case, Curtis Farber, it did not seem realistic to change the order. However, she noted that she had discretion in scheduling and allowed a one-week delay “to provide new counsel and thus have a better opportunity to prepare for trial.”
Bannon, 71, pleaded not guilty in September 2022 following his arraignment on federal money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges.
Bannon is accused of falsely promising donors that all money donated to the “We Build the Wall” campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors allege that the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.
The campaign, launched in 2018, quickly raised more than $20 million and privately built a few miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, was investigated by the federal government and drew criticism from Trump, the Republican whose policies the charity was supposed to support.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the case after Bannon’s federal prosecution was cut compact by a pardon issued by Trump in the final hours of his first term.
Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes, not state crimes.
At the start of the fundraiser, Bannon botched it, prosecutors said at a hearing in November.
“Isn’t this a scam? “You can’t build the wall for that much money,” Bannon wrote in an email, according to prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson. He said Bannon added: “Poor Americans should not use hard-earned money to pursue something that cannot be done.”
Two other men involved in the project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was convicted and also sentenced to prison.
Bannon went to prison last year in an unrelated case and served four months in a federal prison in Connecticut for defying a subpoena as part of the congressional investigation into the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He was released in October.
Aidala told Neubauer that Bannon’s new legal team was in the process of reviewing about 11 terabytes of case files that prosecutors had collected and turned over to them. Someone told him that the files were “like a U-Haul truck of material.”
“We will roll up our sleeves and prepare to try this case,” the attorney said.
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