Bannon arrested on exiled Chinese dissident's yacht

Steve Bannon was arrested at 7:30 a.m. Thursday near Westbrook, Connecticut, on the yacht of exiled Chinese dissident Guo Wengui, according to two law enforcement officials.

Earlier Thursday, CNN reported that a law enforcement official said Bannon was arrested on a boat Thursday morning off the Eastern coast of Connecticut.

An associate of the border wall crowdfunding group "We Build the Wall" told CNN Thursday federal agents "raided" his recreational vehicle in Mesquite, Nevada, hours before prosecutors unsealed charges accusing others involved in the group, including Steve Bannon, of defrauding donors. 

Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence — who are listed on the group’s website as part of the We Build the Wall team — were both served with warrants for their cellphones and subpoenas to appear before a grand jury, Stockton told CNN.

He and Lawrence have not been charged.

Stockton said federal agents told him the warrants and subpoenas came from the Southern District of New York.

The raid occurred on the same day four of their former associates at We Build the Wall, including Bannon, were arrested and indicted by New York prosecutors for allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to the online crowdfunding campaign for personal expenses, among other things.

Bannon and another defendant, Brian Kolfage, promised donors that the campaign — which ultimately raised more than $25 million — was "a volunteer organization" and that "100% of the funds raised...will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose," according to the indictment unsealed Thursday. 

But instead, according to prosecutors, Bannon, through a non-profit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to "secretly" pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon's personal expenses.

Stockton told CNN that he a Lawrence are “still deciding on {legal} counsel." He said they “remain extremely proud that we were able to deliver a segment of wall for all the people who donated to WBTW with the project in Sunland Park.”

“We are skeptical of the timing of the allegations but cannot comment on any specifics at this time,” he added. 

Steve Bannon and three other defendants are accused of defrauding donors in a border wall fundraising campaign, allegedly using hundreds of thousands of dollars donated to an online crowdfunding campaign called We Build the Wall for personal expenses, among other things.

Bannon and another defendant, Brian Kolfage, promised donors that the campaign, which ultimately raised more than $25 million, was "a volunteer organization" and that "100% of the funds raised...will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose," according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.

But instead, according to prosecutors, Bannon, through a non-profit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to "secretly" pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon's personal expenses.

Kolfage, according to the charges, spent more than $350,000 of the donations on personal expenses, including...

Steve Bannon attends a debate on May 22, 2018 in Prague, Czech Republic. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former campaign adviser, was charged today with defrauding donors in a border wall fundraising campaign.

If you're just reading in, here's what we know about the case so far:

Kate Bedingfield of the Biden campaign speaks during a press briefing on August 20. Biden Campaign

During a press briefing with reporters, the Biden campaign's Kate Bedingfield reacted to Steve Bannon's indictment saying, "No one needed a federal indictment to know that Steve Bannon is a fraud." 

She continued to draw a contrast between Biden and President Trump saying, "Look, I think the American people deserve better. They deserve somebody like Joe Biden in the White House, somebody who's going to look out for their families, who's going to put the interests of the country first." 

President Donald Trump talks to reporters at the White House on August 20 in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker/Pool/Getty Images

President Trump said he felt “very badly” that his former campaign manager and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was arrested and indicted Thursday. 

“Well I feel very badly. I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” Trump said, noting that he was “involved in our campaign” and “for a small part of the administration very early on.” Bannon served in the Trump administration from the inauguration through August 2017.  

As for the border wall fundraising project at the center of the indictment, Trump claimed he knew “nothing” about it and did not know the people involved with it, even though other key allies are on its board. 

“I didn’t know any of the other people, either,” he added, reiterating that, “It’s sad.”

A reporter pressed Trump on the many allies who have been in legal trouble – Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, and now, Bannon, and what that says about his judgement. He declined to answer that question, instead repeating misinformation that there was “great lawlessness in the Obama administration, they spied on our campaign illegally.” 

He later added that there should not be a privately-financed border wall, and he read about its construction problems, “where it was toppling.”

“I didn’t want to be associated with that, we built a very powerful wall,” he said, calling Bannon’s group’s wall “inferior” and “inappropriate.”

Watch:

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on August 20 in Washington, D.C. Patrick Semansky/AP

President Trump called the arrest of his former campaign adviser Steve Bannon "a very sad thing."

Bannon was arrested this morning on a boat off the coast of Connecticut. He was charged, along with three associates, with defrauding donors in a border wall fundraising campaign.

Trump said he didn't like the project, and called it "showboating."

Watch:

US President Donald Trump interacts with Steve Bannon during the swearing-in of senior staff at the White House on January 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Steve Bannon was once an influential voice inside the White House as Trump's chief strategist, until he was ousted by the President in August 2017.

He helped run Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, alongside now-White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, and was credited as a driving force behind Trump's populist appeal, nationalist ideology and controversial policies.

A year later Trump fired Bannon, furious from an interview in which Bannon was quoted contradicting Trump on North Korea, and claiming he had authority to make personnel changes at the State Department.

In 2018 the two men had a falling-out after Bannon was quoted calling an infamous 2016 meeting of a Russian lawyer, Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner "treasonous."

Before joining Trump's campaign, Bannon was the former executive chairman of Breitbart, a right-wing news site that traffics in incendiary headlines, many of them outwardly racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic. Bannon returned to Breitbart after leaving the White House, but left again in 2018.

Former Trump adviser Steven Bannon —along with three other men — have been charged with defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.

According to the indictment, Bannon and another defendant, Brian Kolfage, promised donors that the campaign, which ultimately raised more than $25 million, was "a volunteer organization" and that "100% of the funds raised...will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose," according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.

But instead, according to prosecutors, Bannon, through a non-profit under his control, used more than $1 million from We Build the Wall to "secretly" pay Kolfage and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bannon's personal expenses. And Kolfage, according to the charges, used more than $350,000 of the donations for his personal use.

The indictment describes a slight-of-hand perpetrated by the defendants on donors to the We Build the Wall group.

In February, CNN reported that We Build the Wall had communicated with the administration on plans to build a wall along the southern border and donate it to the US government. 

We Build the Wall controversy: We Build the Wall Inc., a group founded by Air Force veteran Kolfage, gained national attention after raising millions of dollars in a GoFundMe campaign, and launching two private wall projects in New Mexico and Texas. Those projects were constructed on private land — a strategy that largely shielded them from government intervention.

Kolfage has come under scrutiny for his inflammatory rhetoric and promises. In the past, he's been accused by some of his donors as overpromising and underdelivering. Other allegations against him include being clandestine in his operations and unwilling to disclose certain logistics. He often uses his Twitter account to spar with or confront liberal critics. In the past, Kolfage has defended himself against criticism. 

He previously told CNN that his group is a "game-changer for border security" and is "trying to make America safer."