Steve Bannon's border wall trial delayed until March 4 as new lawyers plot aggressive defense

NEW YORK — Steve Bannon's trial on charges that he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border will start a week later than scheduled, a judge said Wednesday, after the conservative rabble-rouser hired new lawyers to pursue an aggressive defense strategy.

Bannon, a political strategist and longtime ally of President Donald Trump, had been scheduled to stand trial Feb. 25 in the ''We Build the Wall'' case in state court in New York. It will now start March 4, Judge April Newbauer said.

Newbauer agreed to the delay after summoning Bannon to court to quiz him about his decision to shake up his legal team. She rejected new defense lawyer Arthur Aidala's request for a month-long postponement.

''I've been smeared by a political prosecution — persecution — for years, and I need someone who's a little more aggressive,'' Bannon told the judge during a brief hearing in Manhattan. ''I need every tool in the tool box.''

''Well, every tool in the tool box does not include delaying the trial,'' Newbauer said.

Aidala said Bannon hired him and his firm — including former prosecutor John Esposito and retired Judge Barry Kamins — as attack dogs who are on board with his plan to portray the case to jurors as a selective and malicious prosecution.

Bannon said he started shopping for new lawyers after he was "shocked" by Newbauer's ruling in November that prosecutors could show jurors certain evidence, including an email they say shows Bannon was concerned the fundraising effort was ''a scam.''

Aidala, a prominent New York City defense lawyer, told the judge that Bannon approached him about representation in December and, after initially declining, said he agreed to do so when his schedule freed up.

Aidala also represents Harvey Weinstein in his pending rape retrial, also in state court in Manhattan. No date has been set, but the lawyer had been suggesting that Weinstein's trial go first in ''the interest of humanity,'' citing the disgraced movie mogul's declining health.

''They know that Mr. Weinstein is dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York,'' Aidala argued at Wednesday's hearing. He said he pleaded to prosecutors: ''Can I try this dying man's case first?''

Newbauer said that after consulting with the judge in that case, Curtis Farber, it didn't seem realistic to shuffle the order. But, noting her discretion over scheduling, she allowed for a one-week delay ''to give new counsel to have a better opportunity to prepare for trial.''

Bannon, 71, pleaded not guilty in September 2022 following his indictment on state money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges.

Bannon is accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the We Build the Wall campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors allege that the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.

Launched in 2018, the campaign quickly raised more than $20 million and privately built a few miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. But it soon ran into trouble with the International Boundary and Water Commission, came under federal investigation and drew criticism from Trump, the Republican whose policy the charity was founded to support.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the case after Bannon's federal prosecution was cut short by a pardon that Trump issued in the final hours of his first term.

Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.

Early on in the fundraising campaign, Bannon pooh-poohed it, prosecutors said at a November hearing.

''Isn't this a scam? You can't build the wall for this much money,'' Bannon wrote in an email, according to prosecutor Jeffrey Levinson. He said Bannon went on to add: ''Poor Americans shouldn't be using hard-earned money to chase something not doable.''

Two other men involved in the project, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was convicted and also sentenced to prison.

Bannon went to prison in an unrelated case last year, serving four months at a federal lockup in Connecticut for defying a subpoena in the congressional investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021. He was released in October.

Aidala told Neubauer that Bannon's new legal team is in the process of reviewing about 11 terabytes of case files that prosecutors have collected and turned over to them, which he said someone told him "would be like a U-Haul truck worth of material.''

''We are going to roll up our sleeves and get ready to try this case," the lawyer said.

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