Trump’s Pardon Could Be Useless As NY Investigators Consider State Charges For Steve Bannon

One of Donald Trump’s final acts as president was to pardon his former campaign manager Steve Bannon, a man who defrauded Trump supporters in a scam to fund the disgraced ex-president’s border wall.

But new reporting on Tuesday night revealed that Bannon could ultimately face state charges, rendering Trump’s eleventh-hour pardon useless.

According to The Washington Post, “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is weighing whether to bring a state court case against Stephen K. Bannon, who was indicted on federal fraud charges for his role in a fundraising scheme to build a border wall but received a last-minute pardon from President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter.”

More from the report:

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Investigators working under Cyrus Vance Jr. in the district attorney’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau are in early-stage discussions to determine if there’s a state case to be brought against Bannon for his actions in the fundraising campaign, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the office’s deliberations.

…

While talks among investigators in Vance’s office are preliminary, the focus is on whether a state case against Bannon covering the same criminal conduct from his federal case would be an option once a judge formally dismisses it. Unlike in Vance’s attempted prosecution of Manafort, double-jeopardy probably would not apply given that Bannon has not been convicted at the federal level.

Trump, too, is facing multiple investigations

Now that Donald Trump no longer has the legal protections of the presidency, the ongoing investigations in New York and elsewhere could catch up to him in a hurry.

As I wrote over the weekend, New York Attorney General Letitia James’ ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization appears to be ramping up after a judge ordered the company to hand over more documents.

The former president also faces possible charges related to his role in the D.C. insurrection as well as a criminal investigation into his plot to steal the election in Georgia.

Donald Trump’s impeachment trial will start next week in the Senate, but that will likely be the least of his concerns when his other crimes catch up with him.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.