Steve Bannon indicted (again) on two counts of contempt of Congress. Update: Indicted again in NY for money laundering, conspiracy.

[Llevron]

54 minutes ago, Chachie said:

 

 

My biggest question: How do these people see guys like Trump/Bannon etc. get investigated or charged with crimes REPEATEDLY and think, "The dems are out to get them. Harrassment." The smoke billows out every week but they can't see fire. Law enforcement entities charge people because they have evidence. They convict people because they have proof. Not to Trumpers though. It's all just "made up."

 

Bannon defrauds them for MILLIONS of dollars right in front of their faces but they see no crime at all. When he first started that "wall fund" thing I remember thinking "How can Steve Bannon, just a regular citizen even get those funds DIRECTED to something as governmental as building a border wall? Trumpers never even asked themselves that question. Now he's going to criminal trial over it and they STILL don't make any connection to a crime that was apparent from the beginning right up to the moment we found out he was sailing around the world on a brand new YACHT! 

 

The willful, dedicated ignorance used to be funny but now it's just terrifying. It's a fanatical religion. 

 

Part of the answer to your question is conformation bias. They want to believe the side they are on is the right side, so they believe anything that will allow them to do it. 

 

 

The other part is criminally stupid people being taken advantage of by greedy people. 

[Cooked Crack]

 

[spjunkies]

[LadySkinsFan]

13 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

Another grifter. He's next up for indictment.

[Cooked Crack]

 

[mistertim]

2 hours ago, Cooked Crack said:

 

 

Good. Hopefully they go after Trump the same way (assuming he'll refuse to appear).

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[China]

That seems like a bad reason to delay a trial.  If he's a defendant and he doesn't want to defend himself by talking to his attorneys, that's his problem, not a reason to delay the trial.

[Larry]

Finally starting to sink in that maybe he should quit talking?  

[China]

 

[China]

Steve Bannon’s MAGA Crypto Coin Has Lost 95 Percent of Its Value: Report

 

THE MAGA CRYPTOCURRENCY $FJB, (officially Freedom Jobs Business, unofficially shorthand for “**** Joe Biden”) has fallen 95 percent in value in the past 13 months despite a relentless push by owners Steve Bannon and Boris Epshteyn to keep it afloat, according to an investigation by ABC News. The devalued digital currency has also reportedly become a hotbed for complaints from investors claiming mismanagement and broken promises by Bannon and Epshteyn. 

 

According to a Dec. 2021 contract obtained by ABC News, Bannon and Epshteyn were granted “control, administration, and governance of the coin,” which allegedly reached a market cap of $90 million before their acquisition. Despite an initial spike following the Trump allies taking over the coin, the steady decline and lack of transparency has raised concerns that Bannon and Epshteyn have taken the money and run. A Discord administrator announced to investors that  pair announced to investors earlier this month that they would be transferring the rights to $FJB.  

 

According to the report, $FJB promised significant returns to investors, and a commitment to send a portion of transaction fees to veterans groups and patriotic causes. Charities Bannon cited in his promotion of the coin, including the Wounded Warrior Project, claim they have not received any monetary gifts from $FJB, according to ABC News. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[PokerPacker]

1 hour ago, China said:

Boris Epshteyn

Was Sean Connery talking about Epstein and the secretary he was dictating to mistook his accent?

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

 

[Simmsy]

The Maga crowd doesn't understand crypto, they'll never dive in.

[Ball Security]

7 hours ago, Califan007 The Constipated said:

 

 

 

Thought that reply was a troll. Nope. Sick brag about her investing prowess.

 

Her investment is down 98% because she’s not committed enough. Put some more money into that thang.

[Llevron]

3 hours ago, Simmsy said:

The Maga crowd doesn't understand crypto, they'll never dive in.

 

You think them understanding something has anything to do with their willingness to spend money? 

 

LOL really? 

[LadySkinsFan]

13 minutes ago, Llevron said:

 

You think them understanding something has anything to do with their willingness to spend money? 

 

LOL really? 

 

They certainly don't understand grift and grifters and how soon they are parted with their money.

[Simmsy]

9 hours ago, Llevron said:

 

You think them understanding something has anything to do with their willingness to spend money? 

 

LOL really? 

 

I really sat down and thought about this for a good five minutes...I have to agree with you on this one.

[China]

Steve Bannon proclaims ‘I ain’t going to prison’ at NYC court appearance

 

Trump adviser Steve Bannon isn’t worried about going to the big house because New York’s case against him is “a sham.”

 

The right-wing strategist shared his belief when he appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday for his alleged role in the We Build the Wall crowdfunding scam.

 

“I ain’t going to prison,” Bannon said. “It’s all a sham.”

 

Bannon appeared in court with a new legal team, as ordered by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. His previous lawyers said in January that he stopped talking to them.

 

He was met by more than a dozen protesters with signs that read “Con Man,” “Global Fascist” and “stole from MAGA faithful.”

 

At the hearing, Justin Weddle, a lawyer for the nonprofit also facing charges, asked to withdraw from the case as “the human beings involved in We Build the Wall have all resigned.” Merchan said he’d rule on the request after researching how to proceed without a company representative.

 

The judge threw a bone to Bannon’s lawyers by giving them until May to review a mountain of evidence before he puts the case on track for trial.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

So not paying his lawyers was a delay tactic so he could get a new legal team?  Does he not pay them and do it all over again in a few months?

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Larry]

My first thoughts were destruction of evidence, or an insurance scam. 
 

But if it happened while the FBI was inside the apartment? 
 

I can see the Waco conspiracy theories already. 

[skinsmarydu]

3 minutes ago, Larry said:

My first thoughts were destruction of evidence, or an insurance scam. 
 

But if it happened while the FBI was inside the apartment? 
 

I can see the Waco conspiracy theories already. 

Yeah, I want more details.  That smells worse than a cooler full of marlin.

[China]

Trump ally Steve Bannon ordered to pay $480,000 for unpaid legal bills

 

A judge ordered former Trump White House aide Steve Bannon to pay a New York law firm $480,487 in unpaid legal bills.

 

And that amount could grow.

 

Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arlene Bluth also awarded the law firm Davidoff Hutcher & Citron fees it incurred from having to sue Bannon to collect what it was owed for work performed from November 2020 through November 2022.

 

Bluth’s six-page decision brushed aside Bannon’s arguments against the bill, which suggested Davidoff Hutcher’s retainer was not entitled to charge for work related to four different legal cases, and that he never “personally received” the firms’ bills or paid their invoices himself.

 

The judge noted that Davidoff Hutcher had been paid $375,000 for work for Bannon before he stopped paying the firm.

 

“Clearly someone affiliated with defendant was getting these invoices and defendant admits he instructed his team to pay plaintiff,” Bluth wrote.

 

Bannon “cannot receive the benefit of plaintiff’s legal representation and then insist he need not for it,” the judge wrote.

 

Bannon’s current lawyer, Harlan Protass told CNBC on Monday: “The judge’s decision was clearly wrong and we intend to immediately appeal.”

 

The order comes as Bannon — now represented by a different law firm — faces a May 2024 criminal trial in the same court for allegedly defrauding donors to a purported effort to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty in the case.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Steve Bannon's lawyers argue his contempt of Congress conviction should be overturned

 

Attorneys for former Trump chief White House strategist Steve Bannon appeared in a Washington, D.C., court before a three-judge panel Thursday to argue his contempt-of-Congress conviction last year should be overturned. 

 

The political strategist was found guilty in July 2022 of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Bannon maintained that he could not testify because of executive privilege concerns raised by former President Donald Trump and added that his attorney had advised him not to comply with the subpoena because of the potential consequences. 

 

Defense attorney David Schoen told the panel that whether executive privilege was invoked does not matter to Bannon's defense because he acted based on legal advice about the potential consequences of breaking that privilege. Rather, Schoen argued Bannon acted in the only way he thought the law permitted at the time and did not outright ignore the congressional request, an assertion prosecutors opposed. 

 

Bannon was originally sentenced to months in prison, but Judge Carl Nichols agreed to suspend the sentence — which also included $6,500 in financial penalties — to allow Bannon to appeal the conviction, due to what the judge said were unresolved constitutional questions. 

 

Bannon, a private citizen at the time of the Jan. 6 committee's work, was charged after he rejected demands that he sit for a deposition and hand over records relevant to the congressional probe. The congressional investigators were interested in Bannon's work in over a dozen key areas, ranging from his communications with Trump to his knowledge of coordination between right-wing extremist groups in carrying out the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

 

During the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Bannon thought he was "above the law" and "thumbed his nose" at congressional demands. Bannon himself did not testify and his legal team called no witnesses. 

 

The judge said binding legal precedent barred Bannon from telling the jury that he had refused the committee's demands on the advice of his counsel. Prosecutors successfully argued it was irrelevant to his legal defense based on the case law. 

 

In appealing the conviction, Bannon's attorneys wrote that he "was barred from putting on any evidence or argument that he believed he responded to the subpoena in the only way the law permitted, once executive privilege was invoked and that he acted in the manner his experienced lawyer directed him that he had to act as a matter of law." 

 

The question of whether the defendant willfully broke the law or was relying on his lawyer's advice and views of executive privilege, Bannon's lawyers argued, was key to his defense, and he "was entitled to have the jury consider his defenses. " 

 

The judges appeared skeptical Thursday that they could overrule the lower court's ruling based on arguments over Bannon's state of mind. Judge Cornelia Pillard questioned whether it was up to Bannon himself to seek accommodations from the Jan. 6 committee to avoid being held in contempt.  

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LadySkinsFan]

Bannon's a criminal. He should have been charged in federal court for his participation in egging on the insurrectionists. The feds might be waiting for this "advice of counsel" defense of his works. 

 

Was he ever a federal employee whereby he would get executive privilege at the time TFG was president, or was a guy surrounding TFG?