The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

Politics is a filthy business. It is corrupt, and it corrupts most of the people involved. The founders knew that, and tried to limit the size of government so that corruption was kept to a minimum.

We failed them. Hobbes' Leviathan is here; it is terrifyingly huge. And as much as we would like to believe that those who seem to be on the correct side of the debate have pure impulses, unsullied by filthy lucre, that would be tremendously naive, as this indictment seems to indicate.

Unless the Department of Justice has created this out of whole cloth, it does seem to be substantive. This is not based on entrapment and edited 302s, although the recent behavior of the law enforcement apparatus of the United States government does not fill me with confidence that a railroading isn't possible!

Leaders Of 'We Build The Wall' Online Fundraising Campaign Charged With Defrauding Hundreds Of Thousands Of Donors

Starting in approximately December 2018, BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, and others, orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District of New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign ultimately known as “We Build The Wall” that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. In particular, to induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE 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.”

Those representations were false. In truth, KOLFAGE, BANNON, BADOLATO, and SHEA 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 representations. In particular, KOLFAGE covertly took for his personal use more than $350,000 in funds that donors had given to We Build the Wall, while BANNON, through a non-profit organization under his control (“Non-Profit-1” ), received over $1 million from We Build the Wall, at least some of which BANNON used to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in BANNON’s personal expenses. To conceal the payments to KOLFAGE from We Build the Wall, KOLFAGE, BANNON, BADOLATO, and SHEA devised a scheme to route those payments from We Build the Wall to KOLFAGE indirectly through Non-Profit-1 and a shell company under SHEA’s control, among other avenues. They did so by using fake invoices and sham “vendor” arrangements, among other ways, to ensure, as KOLFAGE noted in a text message to BADOLATO, that his pay arrangement remained “confidential” and kept on a “need to know” basis.

And if it does pan out, it does suggest that President Trump chose wisely when he separated himself from Bannon three years ago.

I just wish that the same investigatory power was exerted when other organizations like...oh...The Clinton Foundation, or Open Society Foundations play fast and loose with their money.

A fella can dream!

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

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