Steve Bannon pleads guilty in

Steve Bannon pleaded guilty to a state charge on Tuesday for his role in a plot to defraud donors to a nonprofit devoted to building a wall on the country’s southern border.

Bannon won’t serve time behind bars under the plea agreement, which was laid out during a hearing in a New York courtroom on Tuesday. In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of scheming to defraud in the first degree, he received a sentence of conditional discharge for three years. During that time, Bannon is forbidden from serving as the director of any nonprofit in New York or raise money for charities with assets in the state. He was also forbidden from using donor data stemming from the scheme.

The plea brings to an end a matter that began during President Trump’s first administration, just as Mr. Trump has vowed again to beef up border barriers in the early days of his new presidency. Bannon served as Mr. Trump’s chief strategist for the first seven months of his presidency in 2017.

Bannon was charged in September 2022 for his role in an organization that raised millions for an effort to privately build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He and the group, which was called We Build the Wall, were accused of defrauding donors of $15 million in donations, though Bannon’s lawyer said Tuesday he didn’t personally pocket any of the money.

The Trump ally attended the hearing in his usual courtroom attire, a brown jacket and untucked black button-down shirt, over gray jeans. He was charged with two counts of money laundering in the second degree, two counts of conspiracy in the fourth degree, a scheme to defraud in the first degree and conspiracy in the fifth degree. Under the plea agreement, Bannon entered a guilty plea to just the first degree scheme to defraud charge. He also waived his right to appeal the case.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement to CBS News, “this resolution achieves our primary goal: to protect New York’s charities and New Yorkers’ charitable giving from fraud.”

“New York has an important interest in rooting out fraud in our markets, our corporations, and our charities, and we will continue to do just that,” Bragg said.

A federal grand jury indicted Bannon in a similar case in August 2020. That prosecution came to an abrupt halt when Bannon was pardoned by Mr. Trump in the final hours of his first term in office. Mr. Trump’s pardon authority extends to federal matters, meaning he is not able to pardon Bannon in this case, which is in a New York State court.  

Bannon served four months in a federal prison in 2024, after he was found guilty in 2022 of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He has decried all the cases against him, claiming they were driven by political animus.

The charges against him in New York were brought by Bragg, whose office last year obtained the only criminal conviction in American history of a former or future president. 

In that case, Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a matter dating back to his first campaign for president, in 2016.

The case, which Mr. Trump has appealed, promises to put Bragg and his office at the center of heightened scrutiny as Mr. Trump and his senior Justice Department leadership vow to investigate those who investigated him.

It’s a cause with wide support among the president’s most fervent supporters, including Bannon.