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Judge dismisses Steve Bannon's fraud case after Trump pardon

26 May 2021
Dan Ackermann

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon's federal fraud charges were dismissed by a federal judge in New York City on Tuesday because of his presidential pardon by former president Trump.

Why it matters: U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres' decision to dismiss the criminal charges over a scheme to privately finance a southern border wall follows a months-long legal fight over how to deal with Bannon's pardon when related cases are before the court.

The big picture: While Trump pardoned Bannon as one of his final acts in office in January, he did not do the same for Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea, all of whom were also charged for allegedly defrauding donors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a crowdfunding campaign.

  • Prosecutors had asked the judge to dismiss Bannon, who pleaded guilty last year to the charges, as one of the defendants in the case, rather than dismissing the indictment.

Details: Torres noted in her order that prosecutors didn't dispute that Bannon's pardon was valid and that "it is not the practice of this district to remove a defendant from the docket without resolution of the indictment."

  • But she added that "pardon implies guilt," quoting an 1853 New Jersey Supreme Court rule.
"'If there be no guilt, there is no ground for forgiveness … A party is acquitted on the ground of innocence, he is pardoned through favor. And upon this very ground it is that the pardoning power is never vested in a judge.'"

What they're saying: Bannon's attorney Bob Costello told the Washington Post the judge had "reached the right result" as an "unconditional pardon should always result in the dismissal of the indictment."

  • He noted to the Wall Street Journal that Bannon "has never been found guilty of anything, and he's not guilty."
  • The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on the ruling.

Read the judge's memorandum and order, obtained by the Court Listener, via DocumentCloud:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.