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Trump reacts to 'very sad' Bannon arrest, says he 'didn't like' private border wall project
President Trump on Thursday said he feels “very badly” that his former adviser Steve Bannon was arrested and indicted in connection with an online fundraising campaign that allegedly defrauded donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars, while calling the project “inappropriate.”
Politics
President Trump on Thursday said he feels “very badly” that his former adviser Steve Bannon was arrested and indicted in connection with an online fundraising campaign that allegedly defrauded donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars, while calling the project “inappropriate.”
The president, during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, told reporters that he hasn’t dealt with Bannon, who worked on his 2016 campaign as CEO and at the White House as a senior adviser, in a "very long period of time."
"I feel very badly. I haven't been dealing with him for a very long period of time," Trump told reporters. "I haven't been dealing with him at all."
The president said he didn’t “know anything about the project at all” but also said he “didn’t like” it.
“I thought it was being done for showboating reasons,” Trump said.
Bannon and co-defendant Brian Kolfage told the public that they were a "volunteer organization" and that 100% of the money raised would go toward their stated goal, which was to raise money for the federal government to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Those representations were false," the indictment said. Prosecutors claim that Kolfage, Bannon, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea took money for themselves as the campaign raised upward of $25 million. The indictment alleges that Bannon received more than $1 million through a nonprofit that he then used for personal expenses and to pay Kolfage.