Former Trump ally Steve Bannon has pleaded guilty to fraud after donors who gave money to help build a wall on the US border were duped.
The 71-year-old will avoid jail after getting a three-year conditional discharge as part of a plea deal.
Bannon had been accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the We Build the Wall campaign would go towards a wall on the US-Mexico border.
But prosecutors said hundreds of thousands of dollars were diverted to enrich him and others involved in the project.
Bannon, Donald Trump‘s former chief strategist, pleaded guilty to one scheme to defraud count on Tuesday, but as he left the New York court said he felt like “a million bucks”.
He’d called the case, which was due to go to trial next month, a “political persecution” and now wants US attorney general Pam Bondi to investigate those who pursued him.
In November, a judge said prosecutors could show the jury an email they said showed Bannon was concerned the fundraising was “a scam”.
An email from him allegedly said: “Poor Americans shouldn’t be using hard-earned money to chase something not doable.”
But last month his lawyers asked the judge to throw out the case, dismissing it as an “unconstitutional selective enforcement of the law”.
Bannon initially pleaded not guilty in September 2022 to a state court indictment charging him with fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.
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The We Build the Wall campaign was launched in 2018 after Bannon was fired by Mr Trump during his first presidency.
It raised over $20m and built a few miles of fencing but ran into trouble with officials and was criticised by Mr Trump himself – despite a border wall being one of his main policies.
Bannon was originally facing a federal prosecution but Mr Trump pardoned him at the end of his first stint in the White House.
Two others involved in the project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, admitted federal charges and went to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, also got a jail term.
Bannon last year served four months in an unrelated case – for defying a subpoena in the investigation into the US Capitol riots – but was released in October.
