STORY: Steve Bannon returned to New York state court on Tuesday seeking to delay his trial on criminal fraud charges over a push to fund President-elect Donald Trump's signature border wall.
The judge did not immediately decide on whether to postpone the trial, which is set to start on Dec. 9
Prosecutors say the former Trump adviser deceived donors who contributed more than $15 million in 2019 to a private fundraising drive to build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty.
After the hearing, Bannon spoke to reporters outside the Manhattan court.
"The lawfare of Tish James [New York Attorney General] and Alvin Bragg [Manhattan District Attorney] and Jack Smith [U.S. Special Counsel] and Merrick Garland [U.S. Attorney General] has been rejected by a landslide by the American people. So the one thing I have to say to Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco [U.S. Deputy Attorney General], Jack Smith, Tish James, Alvin Bragg, you wait. The hunted are about to become the hunters."
BRAGG ON 9/8/22: ""We are here today to announce the indictment of Stephen Bannon..."
In 2022, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg secured a four-count indictment of Bannon on charges including money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud.
According to Bragg's indictment, Bannon promised donors that all their money would go toward building Trump's wall, but he concealed his role in diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars to the drive's chief executive, who had promised to take no salary.
Bannon was released from prison in late October on a separate conviction over contempt of Congress charges related to his refusal to testify and provide documents to the Jan. 6th committee investigating the attack on the Capitol in 2021.
He served four months in prison after a federal jury found him guilty.
