Steve Bannon is expected to surrender to New York authorities on Thursday September 8th over the charges that are closely based on federal charges against him that Donald Trump pardoned Bannon for, according to sources from the Washington Post:
In that (the federal) indictment, prosecutors alleged that Bannon and several others defrauded contributors to a private, $25 million fundraising effort, called “We Build the Wall,” taking funds that donors were told would support construction of a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
If the allegations are similar to those in Bannon's federal indictment, it is a matter of debate whether this would constitute an infraction of the Fifth Amendment's provision that prohibits being tried twice for the same crime. According to the Washington Times, this is not the case.
A presidential pardon can apply only to federal charges and does not preempt state charges even if it’s the same underlying conduct.
Bannon has made it clear that he is not amused by the latest developments.
When reached for comment, Bannon issued a statement through his spokesperson that described the indictment as “phony charges” and “nothing more than a partisan political weaponization of the criminal justice system.”
There's nothing new to see New York attempting to prosecute Trump associates or Trump himself. This past June, Trump had a huge legal triumph against New York Attorney General Letitia James' efforts to discover an infraction against the President in connection with his financial transactions. According to RedState:
Conversely, there’s just nothing really here to find, and that’s the problem with witch-hunts. They begin with a conclusion and then bad-faith actors have to try to backfill the evidence to fit that conclusion. There was never any basis for James to investigate Trump’s business dealings. Rather, the entire thing was her simply continuing the partisan pursuit she started while she was campaigning to become attorney general. She promised to take down Trump, and this is her way of trying to deliver, facts need not apply.
