“It didn’t work then, it certainly won’t work now,” the former White House strategist said. “This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponisation of the criminal justice system.”

Bannon, who had pleaded not guilty, was dropped from the federal case when Trump pardoned him on his last day in office in January 2021.

It didn’t work then, it certainly won’t work now. This is nothing more than a partisan political weaponisation of the criminal justice system.

Steve Bannon on the pending new charges.

Two other men involved in the We Build the Wall project pleaded guilty in April. They had been scheduled to be sentenced this week, but that was recently postponed to December. A third defendant’s trial ended in a mistrial in June after jurors said they could not reach a unanimous verdict.

A president can only pardon federal crimes, not state offences, but that doesn’t mean state-level prosecutors have carte blanche to try similar cases.

In 2019, then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr brought state mortgage fraud charges against Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort in what was widely seen as an attempt to hedge against a possible pardon.

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But a judge threw the case out on double jeopardy grounds, finding that it was too similar to a federal case that resulted in Manafort’s conviction. (Manafort was later pardoned by Trump).

While Manafort’s New York case was pending, New York eased its double jeopardy protections, ensuring that state-level prosecutors could pursue charges against anyone granted a presidential pardon for similar federal crimes.

Bannon’s case differs because he was dropped from the federal case in its early stages. In most cases, double jeopardy is only a factor when a person has been convicted or acquitted of a crime.

In another case not covered by Trump’s pardon, Bannon was convicted in July on contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. He is scheduled to be sentenced in October and faces up to two years in federal prison.

AP

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