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TRUMP’S CESSPOOL  

Trump’s former senior policy advisor Steve Bannon has been indicted for defrauding donors in a “Build the Wall” scheme.  When congress would not fund the wall That Trump promised Mexico was going to fund, a group of grifters, led by Iraq war veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage, stepped in. 

Kolfage, a motivational speaker, created a string of pro-Trump websites using bogus stories to sell ads. Including a fund to improve his home for better access. Another of the indicted was Timothy Shea who sold Trump themed energy drinks said to contain “Liberal Tears”. And the fourth indictment went to Andrew Badolato, a failed businessman with unpaid tax bills and charges of past sexual misconduct. 

Ads ran that featured an enlarged photo of Trump and Kolfage stating that all proceeds would go toward building the wall and he and others were all voluntary. The claim was that Trump was in favor of the enterprise. The go-fund-me page set records and within weeks as it collected $17 million and was a huge success.  The claims drew suspicion when Kolfage claimed that all the money was going to the administration to fund the wall.  Kolfage was told that that was not possible and he could give the money to the treasury, however it would not specifically go toward paying for the wall. Trump himself said he had disavowed the efforts near the beginning. Not quite. He has been shown greeting Kolfage and shown initial support.  Don Jr. was a pitchman for the original effort and was flown on private jet to attend a fundraisers.

Because of the concerns of the Go-fund-me site administrators had with the background of Kolfage’s prior enterprises on go-fund-me sites, they insisted that prior to releasing the money, a non-profit would be required and a board would be established to oversee the funds or the money would be returned to the donors. Kolfage sets up the non-profit for the “We Build the Wall” funds and uses Kris Kobach a former Kansas Secretary of State and longtime Trump supporter was named to the board to garner legitimacy. Mr. Bannon was also brought in by Kolfage to sit on the board at this time.  Kobach was not named in the indictment.

The prosecutors claimed in the indictment that on several occasions Mr. Kolfage falsely assured his donors that every dime they gave would go toward building the wall. The indictment claims he said, “it’s not possible to steel the money. We have an advisory committee.”

Bannon was arrested on a 155-foot yacht owned by a Chinese fugitive billionaire a Mr. Guo Wengui, in Long Island Sound. Bannon is known to have animosity against China and had in fact influenced the administration’s policy on China. The indictment contains two initial charges including money laundering and tax evasion. It claims a scheme of false invoices to bogus companies and pocketing the money.  Bannon is accused of funneling $1 million from the fund that eventually garnered $24 million before being shut down after numerous complaints.  Postal fraud must have also been alleged, since the Post Office officers along with the Coast Guard, boarded the yacht and arrested Bannon.

The evidence includes bank transfers, phony invoices and text messages that outlined the scheme.  Bannon’s phone was taken as evidence when he was arrested.  Bannon’s troubles may have gotten worse when on Friday the Senate Intelligence committee led by Republican Marco Rubio handed the FBI referrals for potential lying to congress for Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner. These alleged lies were all related to the Russia investigation, discovered by the committee during their extensive investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 elections.