Last updated on August 24th, 2020 at 01:12 pm<\/p>\n
The mainstream media announced the indictment of Steve\nBannon in a chorus of rapturous ecstasy that would make Verdi blush. The\nreportage has consisted almost entirely of presenting the most damning details\nof the indictment with little or no attempt to examine potential weaknesses in\nthe charges or consider possible defenses. Predictably, Never Trumpers are\noffering backup vocals with their own Schadenfreude tune. Andrew Napolitano\ntells us that \u201cit does not look good\u201d for Bannon without offering even a\nsmidgen of a defense beyond the non-argument, \u201cWell they can argue that\ncharities can pay people, but they explicitly said they would not be paid.\u201d If\nthat\u2019s the best defense, it indeed \u201cdoes not look good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the strength of the case against Bannon (and the three\nothers indicted) is not anywhere near as clear-cut as the MSM and its enablers\nwould have you believe. More importantly, this is a classic case of selective\nenforcement of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s start at the beginning here. The indictment of Bannon\nand the other defendants was sought by the US Attorney\u2019s office for the\nSouthern District of New York. This office has built a reputation as being\ndecidedly anti-Trump. They have targeted many Trump insiders for investigation\nand prosecution. So, nobody should assume that in going after Steve Bannon, the\nSDNY is simply motivated by concerns about potential misrepresentations to\ndonors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Full-disclosure:<\/em> I know Steve Bannon, and consider\nhim a friend. Fuller-disclosure:<\/em> I have seen the results of the\nleft-wing politicization of our bureaucracy and courts first-hand. In 2016, the\nNational Organization for Marriage\u2019s donor names were illegally released to the\npublic by the IRS. We sued the IRS but had to settle for a measly $50,000. The\nfacts behind how and why our donor names were released were never made public.\nI guarantee you, had it been Planned Parenthood\u2019s donor list that was exposed,\nall hell would have broken loose. Top IRS officials would be forced to resign\nor be fired, Congressional hearings would be launched and an intense media\nfirestorm would be created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We also saw our donors in the successful Proposition 8\nreferendum in California targeted with death threats and harassment. Did the\ngovernment swoop in to help them out? No. The courts refused to do anything to\nprotect their privacy, even when a suit was filed. And in 2014, we were accused\nand fined in the state of Maine for something that we did not do. We were\nbrought up on campaign-finance charges related to our referendum efforts to\nprotect marriage in Maine. The charges were bogus and brought by a gay\nactivist, but a campaign finance committee still ruled against us. They were\nnot even all that discreet in their joy. I can imagine them high-fiving one\nanother after the Commission meeting that they \u201cgot the anti-gay marriage\nguys.\u201d I refused to admit guilt where there was none, though there was pressure\nfor us to do so. Ultimately, we had to pay a fine and move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stakes for Bannon are much higher.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bannon and three other defendants (Brian Kolfage, Andrew\nBadolato, and Timothy Shea) are each facing one count of conspiracy to commit\nwire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Each count\ncarries a sentence of up to 20 years prison time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we know about the case comes from only one source: the\nstatements contained in the grand jury indictment. By operation of law, grand\njury criminal indictments are an entirely one-sided affair soley focused on\nclaims of the prosecutor. The accused is not afforded an opportunity to present\na defense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The government\u2019s case rests on the alleged facts that Brian\nKolfage solicited funds for on GoFundMe account to build a wall on the southern\nborder of the United States with the explicit promise that Kolfage would not be\npaid. Kolfage is an Iraq war veteran and a triple amputee. The fundraising\nappeal was extraordinarily effective, with approximately $20 million being\nraised in a matter of days. However, it appears that Kolfage, who is not an\nexperienced nonprofit executive, did not actually have a nonprofit organization\nset up to formally receive the donations via GoFundMe or to contract with\ncompanies to build a section of the border wall. GoFundMe told Kolfage that\nunless he immediately created a legal non-profit and got affirmative \u201copt in\u201d\npermission of donors to transfer their funds to such a nonprofit group, they\nwould return the money to the donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response, Mr. Kolfage turned to Steve Bannon and the\nother defendants for help. A new nonprofit group was created, We Build the\nWall, a Board of Directors selected, Bylaws approved and bank accounts\nestablished. Kolfage and the Board, with Bannon\u2019s involvement, then began the\nlaborious task of re-raising the funds by securing an affirmative \u201copt in\u201d from\nthe original donors to transfer the funds to the new nonprofit group. The\ngovernment alleges that statements were made that Board members, including\nKolfage and Bannon, would not receive any salary or compensation. Instead, it\nis alleged that Steve Bannon received a $1,000,000 donation from We Build the\nWall into a separate non-profit organization which Bannon controlled. Out of\nthat $1 million Bannon\u2019s non-profit allegedly paid Kolfage\u2019s wife $350,000 for\nmedia consulting and it is claimed that Bannon spent the rest of the money on\nhis lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the surface, the facts as presented look troubling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, these allegations are the Southern District of New\nYork\u2019s one-sided presentation of its claims through the grand jury. They do not\neven attempt to examine potential innocent explanations or legal defenses. For\nexample, what if Kolfage\u2019s wife did do work for Bannon\u2019s non-profit? What if\nKolfage himself did? What if Bannon\u2019s non-profit received the $1,000,000 for\nlegitimate services it was performing for We Build the Wall, such as the\nplacement of media advertising? The MSM is fond of examining campaign reports\nof conservative political companies and claim that they were paid millions of\ndollars, when the vast portion of those payments actually are for advertising\non behalf of the clients who paid them. And what was the status of the\nfinancial condition of Bannon\u2019s non-profit before it received the We Build the\nWall funds? For example, did this group have other ongoing business with others\nto the extent that it could be plausible that funds paid to Kolfage or his wife\ndid not in fact come from the We Build the Wall wire transfers? Did Bannon\u2019s\nnonprofit group have an understanding of services that they would perform with\nWe Build the Wall funds? What portion of funds might have been used for\nout-of-pocket expenses, travel, or other legitimate expenses for We Build the\nWall?<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are all simply legitimate questions. We don\u2019t know\nanything about the answers to these and other questions because all that has\nbeen disclosed so far are the one-sided allegations contained in the\ngovernment\u2019s indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of We Build the Wall was to construct, using\nprivate funds, part of a barrier on the southern border of the USA. All told,\nthey raised about $25 million for this purpose. The indictment contains a very\ntelling statement about what happened with those funds: \u201c\u2026We Build the Wall\nspent money on the construction of a border wall\u2026\u201d but it\u2019s alleged that\n\u201chundreds of thousands of dollars\u201d were siphoned off by the defendants. This\nis a tacit admission by the government that somewhere between 96% and 98% of\nfunds were used exactly as donors were told<\/strong>, to further construction of a\nsouthern border wall. No matter. They want to make an example of Steve Bannon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SDNY makes much of statements made in media interviews\nand emails that Kolfage and the We Builld the Wall Board would take no\ncompensation for their work. For the sake of argument, even if we assume that\nthe facts are all as the government presents in the Bannon case, if the issue\ncomes down to the false or misleading claims of fundraising emails, what of all\nof the false and misleading claims I receive from liberal politicians and PACs?\nWill they be brought up on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to money\nlaunder?<\/p>\n\n\n\n One example out of the hundreds of fundraising emails I\nreceive monthly with exaggerated and potentially false claimes is an innovative\nPAC email request from Amy McGrath, the Democrat challenger to Senate Leader\nMitch McConnell, claiming a 450 percent match. The email further claims that\nunless Amy receives \u201c$9,203.00 right now,\u201d that they will pull all ads. If they\ndid not receive the $9,203.00 and did not pull these ads, should the Feds\ninvestigate? Given the Bannon precedence why would they not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll tell you why in two words: Selective enforcement.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if prosecution were to be even-handed, which it will\nnot be, the reasoning for this indictment could lead to all non-profit, PAC,\nand social welfare organizations, to potentially devastating and invasive legal\ndiscovery. Any group that is sending out what the government deems as\n\u201cmisleading\u201d or \u201cfalse\u201d claims in their fundraising emails would be open to\ndebilitating discovery that could jeopardize donor confidentiality and\nsensitive internal discussions and information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This episode is a window into a fundamentally changed\nsituation in American law. Conservatives have long defended American\ninstitutions, and especially our justice system, and I would say rightfully so.\nWhen we looked at Communist countries, one of the characteristics that repelled\nwas how unequal justice was before the law. In the Soviet Union laws existed in\nthe books that theoretically applied to everyone, but were often only used to\npunish those who the regime wished to target. This is not an example that I\never thought America would follow, but unfortunately, we are on that path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, conservatives believed that while there might\nbe mistakes in the application of the law the US, in general, our courts were\nfair. Well, you can kiss that idea\ngoodbye for now. Our courts and our prosecutors are increasingly motivated by\nideological factors on one side of the political aisle. Although there are many\ngreat prosecutors and judges left in this country, there are enough Cultural\nMarxists that have infiltrated the legal profession that bias and animosity\ntoward one side of the political aisle in the application of the law is\nincreasingly the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can guarantee, even now in a Trump administration, that\nif you are a conservative you will have a much more difficult time in courts\nacross the country. From bakers being sued for not baking LGBT cakes to David\nDaleiden being brought up on charges for exposing Planned Parenthood to people\ndefending their homes from mobs being charged for brandishing weapons while the\nJacobins tearing down the gates and trespassing on private property\nget…nothing. In cities across America,\nanarchists and violent mobs riot and loot. Mayors and prosecutors do nothing.\nIt is conservatives who see their civil rights to equal justice under the law stripped\nfrom them across this country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, before piling on Steve Bannon, ask yourself these\nquestions: Do you trust the media and do you trust the equal application of\nthe law to conservatives?<\/strong> If your answer is \u2018no\u2019 to one or both of these\nquestions, you should give Steve Bannon the benefit of the doubt. You should\nrefuse to accept the grand jury indictment as definitive proof of wrongdoing,\nand you should look for plausible reasons to question this indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conservatives should not let good men down on the field of\nbattle. We should do what we can to stand with those who have stood with us.\nAnd at the very least, we should understand that the MSM and the establishment\nhates Steve Bannon\u2014and that might just have something to do with this\nindictment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last updated on August 24th, 2020 at 01:12 pm The mainstream media announced the indictment of Steve Bannon in a chorus of rapturous ecstasy that would make Verdi blush. The reportage has consisted almost entirely of presenting the most damning details of the indictment with little or no attempt to examine potential weaknesses in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":25491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Before piling on Steve Bannon, ask yourself these questions: Do you trust the media and do you trust the equal application of the law to conservatives?","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"695"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,805,695],"tags":[5326,824,5325],"class_list":["post-25489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-foreground","category-opinion","tag-irs","tag-law","tag-steve-bannon"],"yoast_head":"\n