The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 8.20 Steve Bannon Arrested & Charged with FRAUD?! How "We Build The Wall" Campaign Led To This

Episode Date: August 20, 2020

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Sup you beautiful bastards. Hope you have a fantastic Thursday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. A show that for reasons will either be in two parts or just this one smaller version, which if that turns out to be the case, I just want to quickly thank the sponsor of today's episode, Robinhood,

and more specifically robinhoodphil.com. Click the link, check it out, enjoy, for reasons I'll get into later. Because first we need to just jump into it and talk about this huge breaking news today around Trump's former White House Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon. So just this morning, Bannon and three others

were arrested and charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of people who donated to the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign. And if that campaign sounds familiar, we actually talked about it a long time ago when it first started, but it's been a while. So for some background here, We Build the Wall, or WBTW, it was first started as a viral crowdfunding campaign

by Purple Heart veteran and triple amputee, Brian Colfage, in December of 2018 as a GoFundMe. That fundraiser had a goal of raising $1 billion, which is the max limit for GoFundMe campaigns, with the goal being pretty much what it sounds like, building part of the border wall for Trump. And at that time, Colfage told reporters that he started the fundraiser because political games

from both parties were holding back funding for the wall and saying that the campaign was about giving the people the power. And on the GoFundMe page, which has since been removed, Colfage promised donors, "'If we don't reach our goal or come significantly close, "'we will refund every single penny.' "'And that no matter what,

"'100% of your donations will go to the Trump wall. "'If for any reason we don't reach our goal, "'we will refund your donation.'" Then just a month later in January of 2019, Kolfage decided that it would be more effective to raise money through a nonprofit instead. So rather than giving the Trump administration the money, the nonprofit would use it to privately build segments

of the wall through negotiations with people who owned land along the southern border. As for the over $20 million that he had already raised from nearly 340,000 donors, Kolfage said they could either get their money back or redirect it to the nonprofit. Though notably, a GoFundMe spokesperson said at that time that because of the promises Kolfage had made,

all donors would automatically get refunds unless they manually redirected their donations. So Colfage creates the nonprofit to continue raising money. And according to their website, We Build the Wall has gotten $25 million from half a million donors. With Colfage also getting several significant Republican figures to sign as advisory board members including Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater

and brother of education secretary Betsy DeVos, former Kansas secretary of state, Chris Kobach, former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, and of course leading the charge with Steve Bannon as chairman of the board. And while Colfage said that Bannon got involved days after he first launched the campaign, we really started seeing Bannon emerge

as the leader of the group towards the beginning of 2019. Right, I mean, looking around, you find things like a Vice interview from February of 2019. We're building everything to spec. And if we do the hempcrete, that'll be in an experimental part. We'll say, hey, we're going to do the hempcrete and we're going to convince you that this should be part of the... Don't let the hempcrete...

I'm obsessed with the hempcrete. You love hemp. There's got to be innovation in the wall. We're not sitting there saying, hey, just a concrete wall or just a steel barrier. It has to be advanced technology. And while a lot of the initial traction for that video, that interview, that clip was connected to how pumped Bannon was about hempcrete,

one of the key things that Bannon said in this interview that are relevant to why we're talking about this today is him saying, I did this kind of as a volunteer. And that claim is playing a huge role in the charges against him. According to a statement from the Justice Department, the indictment unsealed today alleges that Bannon, Colfage, and two other men defrauded hundreds of thousands

of donors capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction. And adding that to encourage people to donate, Colfage repeatedly and falsely assured the public that he would not take a penny in salary or compensation and that 100% of the funds raised will be used

in the execution of our mission and purpose because, as Bannon publicly stated, we're a volunteer organization. And in the official indictment, there are numerous examples of Colfage repeatedly claiming he won't collect money from the organization, including sending mass emails to donors asking them to buy from a coffee company he owned, and telling them it was the only way he keeps his family fed

and a roof over their head because he was taking no compensation from the nonprofit. The indictment also says in addition to both him and Bannon saying board members weren't compensated, Colfage also specifically touted the organization's bylaws even going as far as to say it's not possible to steal the money. The statement then goes on to say

that those representations were false and that in reality, all four men received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall, which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization's public representation. In fact, according to the prosecutors, within just days of launching We Build a Wall,

Colfage reached a secret agreement with the other defendants under which he would be paid $100,000 upfront and then $20,000 per each month following. But of course, he wasn't the only one who took the donations. With the group allegedly using the money for a variety of personal expenses, including among other things, travel, hotel,

consumer goods, and personal credit card debts. Colfage specifically took over $350,000 of the donations, allegedly using his share for home renovations, payment toward a boat, a luxury SUV, a golf cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery, personal tax payments, and credit card debt. As for Bannon, the statement says that he received over $1 million from We Build the Wall,

with it adding that he used some of that money to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal with it adding that he used some of that money to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. And on top of all that, a statement also says that to conceal the payments, the defendants devised a scheme to route them through a separate nonprofit owned by Bannon and a shell company by using fake invoices and sham vendor arrangements among other ways.

And really notably, the indictment also says that when the defendants learned last October that they may be under criminal investigation, the website for We Build a Wall was changed to remove any mention of the promise Colfage was not being compensated and to add a statement that said he would be paid a salary starting January 2020,

with the prosecutors also noting he stopped receiving the secret payments after that. With the DOJ release concluding that all four men have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Yeah, ultimately that is where we are right now. There are charges, arrests have been made. These guys are facing serious prison time. As far as what happens next, all four are expected to appear in court later today. Also, as far as what Donald Trump's response to all this has been, you know, a lot of people were wondering,

what is he gonna say? One, because specifically it involves Bannon. And as the Wall Street Journal pointed out, Mr. Bannon joins a half dozen other Trump associates who have been indicted or convicted in recent years. And also because it is a story and now a scandal involving the border wall. Even though I will say for his part,

Donald Trump seemingly had no involvement or at least public involvement in the campaign. Though we've also seen things like an interview in January of 2019, where Kobach said, I talked with the president and the We Build the Wall effort came up. The president said the project has my blessing and you can tell the media that.

And notably Donald Trump Jr. publicly promoted the We Build the Wall effort came up, the president said, the project has my blessing and you can tell the media that. And notably, Donald Trump Jr. publicly promoted the We Build the Wall campaign at an event in 2018 where he said, Brian, thank you so much for all your sacrifices doing this and showing really what capitalism's all about. This is private enterprise at its finest, doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else. And what you guys are doing is pretty amazing.

And in a statement today, following the indictments being unsealed, Donald Trump Jr. said that he had no involvement with the campaign other than praising it at the one event. But also, I will say, Donald Trump has been publicly critical of the organization. Back in July, Trump criticized a wall segment built by We Build the Wall that was starting to show signs

of erosion after just a few months of being up, with Trump tweeting, I disagreed with doing this very small, tiny section of the wall in a tricky area by a private group which raised money by ads. It was only done to make me look bad, and perhaps it now doesn't even work. Should have been built like the rest of the wall,

500 plus miles. And actually, an update here, when Trump was asked about Bannon's arrest this morning, he responded. Well, I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a long period of time. I know nothing about the project other than I didn't like, when I read about it, I didn't like it.

I said, this is for government, this isn't for private people. And it sounded to me like showboating. Obviously, that's a very different response to what Kobach said that Trump said. But ultimately, that is where we are with this story right now, though it is still a developing situation.

And actually, right as we were finishing up today's show, we got the update that Bannon has now pled not guilty and is set to be released on bail. But also, as of recording, we don't know how Colfage or the two others have pled. But with all that said, I do now want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this?

And that is where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives in the news. Also, if you happen to be new here, definitely hit that subscribe button, tap that bell to turn on notifications. Also, if you're looking for more to watch, I got more news for you right here.

But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you next time.